Sanctuary
by Alaska McCormick
Summary: The sanctuary is a home for those who doesn't fit into the human civilication because they're too different. Wash is arriving at the Sanctuary and witnesses the daily madness first hand.
1. Chapter 1

Why did he come here? Seriously. This whole idea had been bad from the beginning. His hackles raised and he could feel his whole skin crawl, just by standing in the doorway. All his instincts screaming at him to run the fuck away, hiding in the farthest hole he could find.

"You fucking bastards! Can't you leave me alone for once! Don't make me angry or I'm going to make fucking bedside rugs out of you flea slings! Get the fuck away!" a goateed man with dark hair and a cobalt shirt running down the stairs, spitting insults at the two huge dogs chasing him. No, wait a second; those were no dogs, but wolven. Great.

He just arrived at an old baroque house in the outskirts of Atlanta, because he got invited here by an old friend. Now he stood in the doorway, observing this rather unusual situation. The man soon got cornered by the wolven, both their tails wiggling and they barking happily.

"Fuck off!" cursed the cobalt clothed man loudly, before turning into a bat and flying towards the wolven, one of them happily trying to catch him.

The bigger wolven however, suddenly began to whimper. With his tail between his rear legs, he ran off towards the library, where a redhead just emerged with a huge book in his arms.

The huge wolven tried to hide behind the redhead, which was hilarious. The wolven was pretty big, Wash assessed that the wolven was about 47 inches, and bulky in build. The redhead lanky and small, not really providing a good hiding place.

Said red haired guy with glasses and freckles just rolled his eyes. "Grif, seriously? Shouldn't you learned by now that you shouldn't chase Church when you're terrified of bats?"

The wolven answered with another whine, looking up to the redhead with big amber eyes, ears flat on his skull and tail still between his legs.

"You fucking asshole! Better learn that once and for all! I'm really once going to suck out all your blood when you sleep!" screeched the bat, fluttering in front of the redhead.

The guy again rolled his eyes, batting the vampire away. "Fuck off Church."

"Yeah, yeah! Fuck you too!" still spitting insults, the bat made his way towards one of the hallways, one of the wolven still at his heels.

The other one still stood behind the lanky guy. Now that the bat was gone his focus turned towards the new arrival – Wash.

The screeching of his instincts got louder with every step the wolf came closer. Wash would have loved to hiss, but kept his instincts in check, just standing there, trying to hide deeper in the grey hood he wore.

"Grif! Will you stop harassing the people for once?" that was the redhead, calling for the wolf. He couldn't say why, but the wolven obviously seemed to mostly obey the redhead. The wolf huffed in annoyance, trotting to the redhead.

Wash now slowly tried to back down and do what his instincts told him, without tempting the wolven to chase him. He just wanted to get away from here.

"Hey, Wash!" Oh, shoot! Couldn't he have start running a little bit earlier? No matter if there was a wolven or not? Turning around, he forced a smile on his lips.

"Hey Carolina."

"Good that you came. I was worried you wouldn't show up!" she grabbed him by his arm, dragging him through the hallway.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Wash could see the library door close again, the redhead obviously retreating in his studies again. Hopefully, he had taken the wolven with him.

"I first will introduce you to Kimball. She's the head of the Sanctuary network and will welcome you. Afterwards, you will get a medical examination by Dr. Grey and will get your own account in our System from Simmons. I'm sure you already met him. The redhead where the wolven hid."

"Wait you saw that?"

"Of course." Replied Carolina, leading Wash through dozens of doors and hallways until he lost his was around completely.

"Why didn't you do something?" His voice turned a big higher, accompanied by a low hiss.

The redhead in front of Wash only huffed in amusement, replying in a matter-of-factly voice. "Because there would be no use to. That's the daily madness in here. You can chide them one day, the next will be all the same like before. So you better get use to this."

Wash groaned. Great. Two hunting-happy wolven living together with him.

"We're here." Stated Carolina, opening a door and letting Wash in. She closed the door after entering behind Wash.

At the desk sat a rather young woman, her long bangs tied back on her head, the rest of her half long hair open, falling over her shoulders like a river of chocolate.

Blue eyes piercing his grey ones when she shortly mustered him.

"I suppose you are the friend Carolina announced to come here?"

"Yes madam." The woman chuckled, obviously amused about his behavior.

"No need to be so formal. My name is Vanessa Kimball. I usually go by my last name." Introduced the head of the Sanctuary herself.

"My name is David Washington. But I prefer going by Wash." Explained the young man standing awkwardly in the room.

"So you had been part of the same project as Carolina?"

Wash hesitated a short moment, looking over to Carolina who gave him an encouraging nod. "Exactly."

Kimball nodded, as if she already knew everything about the project itself, making a short note on the tablet.

"So you came here on the invitation of Carolina. First of all. This isn't a prison here. You are allowed to leave whenever you like to. You are my guest, not a prisoner, okay?"

"Yes." Washs instincts still were screaming on full volume to get the fuck away. But he was curious at the same time. Carolina wouldn't invite him if she wasn't sure it was okay.

"May I ask you what kind of abnormal you are?" there was genuine curiosity underlying the question. Probably, this genuine curiosity made Wash brush off the hood. Maybe it was because Carolina was around.

From under the dark of the hood appeared blonde short hair. It was such a fair blond, that it almost seemed white. On top of his head appeared two ears, now peeking up to gather every information and even the tiniest sound from his surroundings. His pupils were slits and small pointed fangs dented his bottom lip. His fingernails were long and sharp.

Kimball smiled happily. "So you're a werecat."

"Obviously." Kimball blinked shortly while Carolina gave him a short push to remind him of who he was talking to.

"Excellent. Considering the fact that you're not able to transform fully into a human, I suppose you're rather young? In terms of a life of a werecat."

Wash only nodded, his ears twitching and turning as if there would be an enemy lurking somewhere. If his tail wouldn't be hidden under the huge hoodie he wore, it would twitch and jerk back and forth.

Kimball made some more notes, before again looking up to the young male standing awkwardly in the room.

"Okay, I suppose Carolina will show you the showers and give you some clothes to change. After that, Dr. Grey will make a short health examination. Simmons will make a guest entry in the system of you. Afterwards, you will get your room shown and are free to do what you please. Carolina, would you mind showing Washington around as you already know each other?" the last question was directed to the redhead standing behind the werecat.

"Absolutely not. Come on Wash, let's get you out of the hood. You reek."

"But I like the hood!" replied the blonde man, following Carolina through other hallways. Some looked fairly familiar, but foreign at the same time. Maybe Wash thought he knew this hallway because they all looked alike.

"This hood is old and dirty and it reeks."

"This hood is mine! And it just smells a little bit."

"You're reek-blind, Wash. That thing almost kills my nose." Replied Carolina, fondling her hand to dissipate the reek.

"But it's mine! I like my hood!"

The redhead in a teal shirt eyed him for a short moment before sighing. "Okay, then just let me wash it. Afterwards you'll get it back."

Ears peeking up, the Werecat only nodded to the prospect of having his favorite hoodie washed and clean for once in years.

After showering and a rather creepy examination with flying stuff at Grey's, Wash was lead to Simmons, the readhead with the wolven (Luckily, latter wasn't around), who made up an account for Wash.

Afterwards, Carolina showed him his quarter; he would stay with the 'Blues'.

Unlike Kimballs announcement, the red-haired woman dragged him off just after showing him his room, saying something about needing to show him someone.

Wash feeling oddly exposed without his hoodie to hide in followed his former leader through the house. It was bigger than expected, which meant that Wash would more easily get lost.

Rounding a corner, he heard trampling steps, someone running towards him.

"Waaaash!" with a rumbling sound, something flew right through the werecat, which was frozen in place, tumbling on the ground. "Aaaaaw North, that's not fair! Why did you do that!"

A low chuckle emitted from the hallway the blur previously came from. "I know how tactile you get, York. Better not scaring the rookie off."

A half translucent figure pushed up from the ground, staring at the other man standing there. He crossed his arms, sporting a pout. "Not true!"

"You are tactile York. It's really better North keeps you in check."

"But Linaaaaa!"

"Never call me like that again or I put you together with Caboose."

"Please not!" yelped the brown haired man, immediately hiding behind the tall blonde man with a violet shirt. From behind his human meat shield, York again peeked up. "But I'm still not tactile."

Carolina rolled her eyes. "No absolutely not York, you're the politest person I know." The human meat shield chuckled again.

Slowly the whole situation began to sink in Washs mind.

"York? North? Is that you, guys?"

"No we're just copies of the guys you know." Deadpanned York, North hitting his shoulder. "Ow!" whined the ghost. Carolina chuckled.

"This is us, Wash." Replied North calmly and gentle, walking towards the werecat. He moved cautiously, to not scare the new arrival.

"But- how? I thought you were dead!"

"Well, Northy-boy here" this brought York a withering glare from said man. "is a telepath. Means that he managed to form a dome for us three" York pointed towards North, Carolina and himself. "when the whole building collapsed. We dug our way out afterwards."

Wash just gaped at the three people. First he thought he would be the only survivor, learning that Carolina survived too when she found him in the streets. Now he learned that North and York were alive too.

"What about the others?" Asked Wash hopefully.

North just sighed, before replying. "We don't know. Some got killed, like Florida and CT. Some just disappeared, we don't know if they're still alive."

"I see." Answered Wash a bit sad to the explanation of the telepath.

"Now tell me, how did you come here? We actually thought you were dead." North asked. They were sitting in one of the big community rooms in the sanctuary, Wash having a glass of milk on the table in front of him.

"I had been on day pass when the whole complex began to crumble. As there was no-one looking for me, I hauled ass and ran as fast as I could. Not really thrilling story. I guess I was just lucky."

"What about the tracker in your neck?" asked York, nursing a beer. He was allowed only once a day.

"I found a shady backyard doc who took that thing out." Wash rubbed over the scars in his neck. They were pretty big and nasty. But he was okay with them as long as the tracker was out of him.

"I pickpocketed a lot of people to pay the doc and make myself sated. I often used my cat-form for that." Replied Wash, a tinge of red dusting his cheeks.

He wasn't keen on this part of his past, but it had been necessary to survive.

"What about you then?" asked the werecat his friends after some moments of silence.

"Nothing big. Carolina dragged our asses over to the Sanctuary right after we dug our way out. She already seemed to know this place and thought it would be a good idea. The disturb signal first made it impossible for the director to track us. Soon after, Dr. Grey surgically removed the trackers and gave them Caboose to play with."

"Wait? They're still active!?" Washs eyes immediately became wide as saucers. York and Carolina began to laugh while North chuckled amused.

"No you dummy. First, the director couldn't find us as the whole property is protected by a disturb signal. Secondly, Caboose is a fire elemental. And giving him something to play means that it'll get burnt after five minutes tops."

Wash sighed relieved. So they seemed to be halfway save here.

"You're staying then?" This time it was Carolina, looking expectantly at Wash. He shrugged a bit helplessly.

"I have no better place to go at the moment and I think I can give it a go." Replied the werecat.

"On which team are you?" peeked North up.

"Blue team, why?"

A shit eating grin appeared on Yorks face. "Oh boy, have fun with them."

"Why?"

"You'll see." Replied York with his special grin. In addition, the others began to grin, but neither of them seemed to want to enlighten the werecat.

In the end, Wash decided to leave the guys alone, trying to track his way back to his dormitory alone. It took him more than an hour to do so, but eventually he found it. Luckily, he didn't cross paths with one of the wolven.

Back in his room, he saw that Carolina stuck to her word and brought his grey hoodie. It was freshly washed and every hole was sewed so that it looked almost normally again. Immediately, Wash slipped into the grey fabric with yellow streaks on it.

The streaks were from a sprayer who thought that Wash wanted to take away his favorite spraying spot. It took days to get the yellow out of his hair.

The streaks never went out of the hoodie. Some when this odd combination became Washs brand color, people always referring to this hoodie when someone had to find him to ask for a favor.

Laying on the bed, Wash soon felt his hair grow out while his bones and muscles began to shift. When the transformation was complete, the werecat rolled up in a tight ball inside the freshly washed hoodie. Soon he was fast asleep although he was at an unknown place. Normally he wouldn't fall asleep so easily. Maybe it was because some of his friends were around and okay with the place here what set him at ease.

The next day, Wash woke up to another ruckus in early morning. There was screaming and banging, making Wash almost jump through the roof.

Smoothly jumping down the bed, he left his room (He always left the door a bit open. He didn't like closed doors or small rooms since the 'project'.

Toddling towards the door the noises came from, he saw that the name on the door was written in a childlike handwriting, reading 'Michael J. Caboose'. Huh? Wasn't that the fire elemental?

"Careful Caboose." That was Carolinas voice. Right, she was resistant towards heat and fire. Only logical that she would put up with the fire elemental then. Although it was a mystery why Caboose was allowed to walk around freely when he didn't had control of his powers as he learned yesterday.

"Kitty!" a squeal erupted from Washs right side, making him jump in the air. His fur rose when he hissed at the strange sound. There was a young boy running towards him, a huge smile on his lips and his hands stretched out to grab him.

"Careful Junior!" another person appeared, apparently the father of the boy.

Washs instincts taking over, he darted into his room, slamming the door shut while he began turning into a human. Panicking, he began throwing on his clothes, hiding his ears and his tail under his favorite hoodie.

A knock at the door caught his attention. "Hey sorry dude. Junior is sometimes a bit vehement. You okay?"

"I- Uh- Yeah, I'm okay." Wash reluctantly opened the door a little bit, seeing the man from before with the boy on his hips. Wash supposed that he was about six or seven.

"I'm Lavernius Tucker. Just call me Tucker. And this little fellow here is Junior. You must be the new guy who arrived yesterday. Werecat, right?"

"Right. Nice to meet you." Wash swallowed, his hackles raising. His cat senses caught something up from this Tucker-guy what made him stay wary.

"Okay, Sorry again. Junior tends to forget his strength sometimes. Oh and the guy here" Tucker pointed to Cabooses door. "Is the fire elemental Caboose. He looks like a grown ass man but he's not completely here, you know." Explained Tucker before pointing to the door on the other side of the floor. "There's Church living. He's a vampire. Ever heard of the Church Clan?"

"The famous vampires who were at war with the Grif-wolvens for years?"

"Well yeah." Replied Tucker with a grin. "But he's not the best representative of this family. He doesn't give two shits about this war. Which is why he ran away from home and landed here."

"Wait a second, isn't it dangerous to have the Grifs and a Church under the same roof?"

"You already got to know the wolvens from red team?" Tuckers eyes lit up with mirth.

"More or less." Wash shrugged as he answered. "They chased Church. One of them peeing his pants when Church turned into a bat."

"Ah, this would be the older, Dexter. Although he only goes by Grif. He's fucking afraid of bats. The other one is his little sister Kaikaina. She isn't afraid of anything and a hotshot. Bow chicka bow wow!"

Wash suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "That didn't answer my question. Isn't that dangerous?"

"Nah, absolutely not." Waved Tucker the werecat off. They now were walking towards the mess hall for breakfast. "Church doesn't give a shit about this war. And the Grif-siblings here didn't grow up in the pack. Most of them stopped fighting the vampires long ago, trying to stay hidden somewhere."

"Why that?" Wash took a tray, trailing behind Tucker and Junior. "The Churchs managed to kill a lot of them about two hundred years ago. Some of them try to get revenge for their fallen family members, but most of them hide since then, trying to survive withouth the Churchs finding them. The fight for the Churchs, however, only ends when the last Grif is killed. Luckily our Church isn't that much of a dickhead."

"So this means that they can live with each other because both don't really give a shit about the war?"

"You can put it like that, yeah." Confirmed Tucker, taking a bun from the basket, giving it to Junior before taking his own.

After getting their food, Tucker wandered over to a table where blue and red clothed people sat. "So this skirmish yesterday…"

"… Is nothing than fun, don't worry. Now let's stop talk about it. They don't like that subject. And better they don't know you know already." Finished Tucker the sentence for the werecat.

Coming to the table, Wash saw lots of new and lots of unknown faces. There was Simmons. Beside him sat a bleary tanned man. His hair was black and his eyes amber. Wash supposed that he was the cowardly wolven. The girl beside him had the same features. So she must be Kaikaina. Church was sitting at the table too, mustering the wolven with a gloomy expression.

After taking a seat, Tucker shortly introduced everyone to Wash and what they were. There was Sarge, a Diacom (So better don't make him angry or he'll cook you inside out), Donut a mermaiden, Simmons, who could become invisible, Grif and Kai the wolvens, Church the vampire and Caboose the fire elemental.

During lunch, the others warned Wash about Tucker. He is an Incubus and tries to hit on everyone who could potentially feed him – Like Wash for example. He's so bad at picking up people (Hey! I'm not! I'm a ladies man!) that he more than not is hungry for several days.

Wash only thought that these people he got grouped with were batshit crazy.


	2. Chapter 2

"You always say no!"  
"I know! And this time, I say no too!"  
"Aw come on, Grif!"

"No!"  
"Why not!? I get my sex and Tucker is fed, so where's the problem?"  
"You aren't allowed to do that! It's Tucker we're talking about! He's a fucking Incubi and already has a bastard son! One is enough! And you don't know what STD he has!"

Simmons could imagine how Kai would flick her hair over her shoulder in a cocky manner before replying immediately. "It would be my kid too! And I'm old enough to look after a kid! Besides, he has no STD! And I don't care if he's an Incubi! Your boyfriend can get invisible! He's no werewolf too!" A growl came through the wall before Kai spoke again without missing a beat. "When it comes to me, nobody is allowed to touch me!"

"Because you are too young! And you're my sister! And he is not my boyfriend! How many times do I need to tell you that!?"  
"I'm old enough! And being a sister doesn't count! And he is your boyfriend! Don't you notice that you chose him!?"

"You're not old enough in terms of a human! When did you master the human form? Four years ago? You're still a pup! And it counts if you're my sister or not! And no he's whether my boyfriend nor my mate so quit it!"

"It doesn't! And I am old enough! And he is!" Kais wolven ears did surely already appear, laying flatly on her skull, making clear that she was just a tiny little bit pissed. It was always the same when they argued.

Simmons in the room beside rubbed his temples, his face burning like an oven. When they weren't chasing Church or ignoring each other, they were having grown-ass shouting matches. Or Kai would tease Grif loudly about Simmons being his boyfriend.

They really, honestly were no couple. Really. They were just close friends, enjoying each other's company, like to talk for hours, knowing exactly where the other is, knowing everything about each other, but that's about it. Why can't she quit it!? It's getting really old….

How should you be able to concentrate like that!? He should study for the exam next week and work for his essay for this summer. His online-college-degree didn't do itself!

With a muttered curse, he let the two wolven argue, ignoring the nagging and moving with his laptop and his books to the library.

His college degree would be about crypto- and xenobiology. After that, he wants to study teratology. He wanted to stay here and study the creatures and people living here, trying to help them as good as he could. Knowing as much as possible the 'normal' humans thought is true would maybe help.

It was always difficult during lessons when he reads absolute bull about something and has to bite his tongue to not laugh out loudly or slap his hand against his forehead.

There, for once, was written that mermaids and mermen would die when they're at land. Actually, their fin turns to legs. That some of them are sex-addicts on the other hand is true. Donut from his team is the best example to proof this theory.

There was also the difficulty to write an essay about something, without making himself to a complete idiot in the eyes of his teachers when he wrote about Abnormals as if they are real. Normal humans don't believe that they really exist and would immediately mark everyone as crazy who thought differently.

All in all a pretty difficult situation for Simmons. Which means that he needs quiet and space when he has to do his homework or work on his essay for fucks sake! He had to finish it in about half a year for the exams!  
Stretching his back until he heard the relieving plop, Simmons thought about how to formulate a sentence without sounding too much like an idiot.

He had located himself on the old baroque couch in the back of the library, hidden by some shelves, laptop on his lap and books strewn around the place. Sometimes he would put his laptop away to look for a book he knew was something written about the thing he was writing.

He wrote about the possibilities of genetic mutations. Theoretically were endless. Which means that a pair could have ten children and each would have different abilities.

He remembered once reading a story about this, where was this book…? Ah, there. Exactly. One of the thousand different stories about Lilith. She was the first human who managed to solve a riddle of a dragon. As the dragon didn't want to let her go after that as he promised, she killed him, gaining all his power in this process.

After this events, she lived a normal live with Samael, although she got more violent and mean with each day passing. Soon, Samael decided to leave her. Up to then, they had two children, with different abilities. One was the ancestor of the vampires.

After that, Lilith used to tempt young man into having sex with her before killing them. Every time, a new child would be born with new abilities. During this time, also a young boy named Sin. She used to call him like the Sumerian moon-god because his powers would be greatest during the night. He was the first werewolf.

Lilith going to the desert after almost getting killed by a mob of civilians and living there, far away from civilization. Up to then, she had about, according to different stories, ten to fifteen kids.

Kimball told him that Lilith got killed by an anxious companion of her during an expedition in the 18th century. She had been in her sleeping period and wouldn't mean any harm. But the wind made her black wings move slightly, causing Mr. Angsty to shoot.

Her remains now lay in one of the cryo-chambers in the basement of this house. Simmons had already seen her. She allowed him to see her once, when he started at the college and had some troubles coping with the stress.

Seeing her like that, had made his motivation come back. Although the story wasn't entirely true. She 'just' had been one of thousands of different Abnormals. Nothing about the story of first demon or whatever.

However, back to the topic. The possibilities of genetic mutations. As said, theoretically they're endless. Nevertheless, Simmons had to make up a whole story around this simple conclusion.

The door to the library opened, steps coming towards the couch. Simmons didn't bother looking up as he recognized those steps as Grifs. Soon after, the Hawaiian slumped down on the couch beside the redhead, not saying a word, but shortly mustering the books laying around.

Grif knew that he only had permission to be here when he was keeping quiet and wouln't disturb Simmons.  
As he could nap during this time, Grif didn't really mind those rules.

The wolven was about to drop off when Simmons suddenly remembered about something. "Hey Grif?"  
"Mh?" the deep rumbling sound almost sounded like a snarl.  
"What did Kai mean with mate? Since you're human, you shouldn't be affected by pack hierarchies and this stuff?"

"We shouldn't but we are. Some dickheads of ancestors thought it's cool to mate real wolfs. Okay, our race was about to get extinct. However, they thought fucking with a wolf keeps their wolven blood purer than just biting a human and making this one a werewolf too." Grif huffed.

Simmons tried to keep as much information as he could about what Grif told him. It was common knowledge, but it was interesting to hear it from someone of this race. What he thought about that.

"In the end, this whole shit lead to us having the same mating instinct like wolfs. Although we're different." Grif didn't even bother opening his eyes. He just wrinkled his nose a little bit.

"Which means that you chose your mate and stay with him or her?"  
"Yep." Grif popped the 'p' at the end.  
"Even when they reject you?"  
"Exactly. Although most of the rejected wolven die of loneliness when their mate rejects them."  
"Oh… And- and how does someone or even you know when you chose a mate?"

This time, Grif shrugged with his shoulder. "I have no idea, man. Some say you just know it when you have chosen. The mate will know it too because we wolven get very possessive and jealous towards the chosen mate. So if they're talking to a potential rival, wolven could get fucking recalcitrant."

"Uh-hu. And did you or Kai already found someone?"  
"Nope. Although we don't have to hurry. For werewolfes, we're still pups."  
"So you get older than a normal human?"

"We could get twice as old as a human."  
"How come I've never heard about that?" wondered Simmons, looking up from his laptop to see Grif hanging in the couch with his eyes still closed. Although they were closed, Simmons knew that they were blue like the ocean in his human form. In wolven form, they're a sparkling amber.

"Already forgotten about the dying from loneliness-thing? Mostly because of that." A grin appeared on his lips, showing his pointed teeth. Grif loved to show his canines even when in human form.

There was a long silence, Simmons not really knowing what he should think about this reveal. It was an interesting information though. Something he would note later in his observation book. Maybe he would need it later on.

There still was one question bothering Simmons.  
"What did you say about mastering the human form?"

Another slightly annoyed huff. "That's also something coming from this wolf-fucking-thing. Werewolfs get born in wolven-form." Grif yawned, Simmons gulping when he saw the long fangs. They were short, compared to the canines of his wolven-form but impressive nonetheless.

"So you first are pups before becoming human?"  
"Exactly. Around four to six, most of the werewolfes manage it to turn completely to a human. Just in time to go to school."  
"So Kai is a late starter?"

This time Grif chuckled. Another rumbling sound coming from deep within his body. "I actually thought she wouldn't start at all. When she was sixteen, she one day came out of her room, wearing a blatantly colored dress with tons of flowers printed on it. That's also the reason she doesn't really know much. She never had been to school except of here. And if it wasn't for Kimball, she wouldn't go to school at all."

"What has Kimball to do with that?" Simmons looked to Grif who was comfortably lounging on the couch. He took more than half of the couch to lay on.  
"Kai sees something like a mother figure in her. Which is why she obeys when Kimball tells her to go to school. Kimball gets an attendance list of her every month. Also a measurement to make her go to school."

"Did it at least work?"  
"Pretty much. She's doing better with every day. Since Kimball told her that she had to work hard if she wanted to stay here, she's trying her best. But well, she's always been a bit slow. Mom once said that there had been some complications during her birth."

Simmons preferred not answering on that. He always knew that Kai wasn't completely there. Although it was better than Caboose but still. Now he knew why and didn't really think that he still had the right to call her retarded. She was a nice young girl, having had a troublesome start in her life. Maybe he should give her more credit and ask her to help her with her homework.

"You done with the 20 questions now?"  
"Huh? Uh- Yeah." Muttered Simmons, returning to his studies. Although he didn't really work on them now. He more was thinking about the new piece of information he just got about the wolven and Kai.

Grif soon was asleep beside Simmons, snoring lightly, while the redhead continued his work. When it was about time for dinner, the redhead put away all the books he used, saving the document on his laptop and waking up Grif to go to the mess.

After having dinner, Simmons went down with Kimball and Carolina to feed the other Abnormals, who weren't allowed to leave their cages.

They mostly lived there for their own safety or the safety of his surroundings. Or because they needed a special environment to survive.  
Per example there was an acidlizard, breathing sulfur fumes like others oxygen.

They were just about to feed a rather violent stingbeast in the high-security wing, when Kimball took up the theme.  
"How is your essay doing? Are you making progresses?"  
"Uh- well- yeah. I'm as good as ready. I- uh- actually wanted to ask you- uhm you two if you would like to read and comment it." Replied Simmons sheepishly. God did he hate talking to women.  
Kimball's features lit up. "Of course, I would love to. Just send me the text by mail when you're done. I will read it and write a comment about it."

Simmons smiled. "Thank you Kimball. What about you Carolina?"  
"Sure, just send it over." Replied the redhead shortly, fighting to get a huge Amazonian Ridgeback (Twice as big and twice as deadly as normal) back in his cell.  
"I write a comment when I read it." Added the teal clothed woman after closing the door.

"I got a letter the other day from the school." Simmons felt his heart sink, even though Kimball was smiling warmly.

"They wrote me you attempt not only the classes necessary, but also the all the other classes. They say you're an exemplary student. You always are ahead the subjects you should learn, always do your homework and always would understand new themes pretty fast. They practically can't praise you highly enough for your effort. I'm impressed and proud of you."

Immediately Simmons face turned beet red, making him splutter like an idiot. Carolina would laugh during the rest of the feeding, Kimball only smiling at him warmly and fondly whenever their gazes meet.

Coming back to his room, Simmons noticed that his bed was occupied. Immediately, Simmons forgot about the awkward situation before when he saw a huge black wolven laying on his bed, curled up to a ball and sleeping soundly.

Sighing, the redhead went over to his bed, sitting down on the bedside.  
"Grif, what did I tell you about laying in my bunk when you're a wolf?"  
A low grumble was the answer, accompanied by a lazy waggling of his tail.

Simmons sighed again. He knew that he had lost against the wolven. He wouldn't be able to move him anyway. And getting him out of bed on another way was difficult to impossible.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried. Once with a bucket of cold water. With the effect that his bed smelled like wet dog for the next two weeks.

The second time he tried it with Oreos. Grif was faster in getting out of bed, eating the Oreos and getting back to bed before Simmons had a chance to react.

The third time he tried it with simply shoving the wolven out of his bed. After half an hour Grif hadn't moved and Simmons had to take another shower because he was all sweaty and tired.

Since then, Simmons would sleep in Grifs bed. He couldn't tell why Grif preferred sleeping in his bed when it was around full moon. Maybe because his room was on the moon light side of the propriety, his bed standing under the window, letting in the moonshine. It looked like Grif was basking in the moon light then.  
Grifs room would always direct out to the patio of the building, but no moonlight would come in because a huge oak stood in the middle.

Checking his calendar, he saw that in two days would be full moon. Which meant that Grif would turn into a wolf every night for two days before and after the full moon.  
Fondling the wolven behind his ears, he could hear a low rumble again coming from Grif. Simmons knew that he liked to get petted behind his ears when being a wolf. Although he would never admit that loudly.

He observed the wolven slowly falling asleep, his features looking almost peacefully – For a wolf. When the redhead was sure that Grif was asleep, he went over to Grifs bed to crash out there. The beds were way too small for a human and a wolf to fit in.


	3. Chapter 3

Wash was stressed. Really fucking stressed.

He got up this morning like usually, changing into his cat-form to walk to the shower without needing to put on clothes. Afterwards he would walk back and then put on his clothes. Much easier.

Or… That was how he planned it to happen.

In the middle of his way to the shower, he crossed Kais path, who looked at him like a predator at his prey. Grif just showing up to go to the restroom didn't make it any better. He had the same gleam in his eyes. Latest when he saw blue and brown eyes change to amber, Wash thought it was about time to bolt.

He fucking knew that this was a wrong move, but what should he do otherwise!?

Like a white blur Wash bolted down the hallway, two huge mutts at his heals, barking and howling happily. They really undoubtedly were siblings, Grif and Kai. They both were the same idiots when it came to chasing something. Besides, this time Grif wouldn't back down because Wash unfortunately wasn't able to change into a bat.

Only a cat. One little letter making such a bit difference.

With his fur bristled, he darted around another corner, seeing an open door, darting in there.

If he only had checked the nametag…

First, he noticed the stinging cent of burnt things. Turning around, he could see a broadly grinning Caboose, lunging for him with an excited "Kitty!"

Hissing, Washs instincts took over when he let out his claws and scratched the back of Cabooses left hand before darting out again. Out there, the mutts already waited for him to continue their chase.

With another hiss, Wash accelerated, trying to keep at least two meters between him and the mutts.

Seeing another open door, he first remembered to read who was living there. Tucker.

Oh shoot! Well, better than nothing. He darted into the room and dove directly under the bed before Tucker could react.

The wolvens were following suit, trying to breach into the room, only to get stopped by Tucker, blocking their way.

"Get out of here, I don't want my room to stink like foul dogs!"

The wolven ignored him, making Tucker bark down the hall. "Simmons! Come here and get your bedside rugs back in their cages!"

"What? Why should I?"

"Because one of these idiots listens to you! Kai get lost!" the ears of one of the wolven perked up, before she trudged away with hanging head. The other still was focused on the cat hissing from underneath Tuckers bed.

"Grif! Quit it!" screeched Simmons from across the hall, making the other mutt give up the chase. The wolven huffed, pointedly walking in the other direction than Simmons was calling for him.

Tucker sighed, closing the door and looking to the spot he suspected Wash to be. "Dude, it's save. You wanna get some clothes and come back then? Not that I would mind seeing you naked. I bet I tear the clothes down as soon as you're back in here. Bow chicka bow OW! You fuck!" Tuckers trademark parole went under when Wash came out from underneath his bed and bit him in his calve for his remark before leaving the room.

"You could at least thank me for chasing away the wolvens!"

Wash decided to not respond, walking back to his room to get his jeans and his sweatshirt before returning to Tuckers.

"I rather keep my clothes on but I'd like to stay with you." Stated Wash calmly when he came in after half an hour.

Tucker was nowhere to be seen.

Strange, didn't he invite him over some moments before? His ears twitched when he heard a roaring before Tucker ran through an open door and slamming it shut.

Wash mustered the Incubus with a raised eyebrow and a laid down ear. He looked a bit singed, some of his dreads still smoking a little bit.

"Are you keeping a flame thrower in there?"

"Almost." Breathed Tucker, glancing through the ajar door before slamming it shut again when it roared again.

"Seriously, what's happening in there?"

"Junior's angry." Stated Tucker drily. "He wanted to go to a friend, but I forbade it as he had been disobedient the last days."

"And he's having a flame thrower?"

"Dude, he _is_ the flame thrower!"

"But- how!? I thought he's your son? You are not a flame spitter!"

"Actually…" Tucker pressed against the door when it rattled and opened a bit. "…He's more like his mom." Replied he a little bit stressed.

"Huh? After his mom? What is she? A Fiery Salamander?"

"Worse, she's a shape shifter." It rattled again, Tucker barely managing to hold the door closed.

"So Junior is a shape shifter? Huh, pretty fucked up."

"Who are you telling that? He has the stupid habit to turn into a dragon when he's angry! What do you think am I trying to keep I check there?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought about a mouse." Replied Wash calmly, mustering the Incubus.

"Haha, very funny." Snapped the Incubus.

"How about letting me try?"

"Going in the same room with an angry Junior? Have fun. I won't get your ashes out."

"Don't worry, I don't think it will go that far." Deadpanned Wash, already slipping out of his hood before beginning to transform to his second form.

When he was ready, he stood to the door and mewled lightly, indicating Tucker to open the door.

On the other side of the massive door, Wash saw a huge dragon sitting, ready again breathe fire. When he saw Wash, a huge voice boomed through the room. "Kitty!"

Wash laid his ears back, hissing at the booming voice, bristling his fur.

Wash didn't think it'll work, but effectively the dragon backed down, slowly begin to shrink until Junior was sitting on the bed with a confused expression. Wash decided to sit in the hallway, just mustering the young shape shifter until he was sure that he cooled down enough.

Scratching at the door, Wash only left the room to transform back and get his clothes before walking back in. Tucker looked at him like he was some kind of superhero or god. Wash decided to ignore it. First he would have to deal with Junior before he would try to get along with a flirtatious and hungry Incubus who is in awe about him getting along with his son and would probably idolize him like a god.

Maybe this was already enough to make the Incubi fall in love with him. Wait… What are those for thoughts he had? Kinda strange…

It wasn't the thought per se that he thought like that about a man. He was bisexual, like every werecat. What was confusing him were the questions why he thought that about Tucker without really knowing him (Was this some kind of strange Incubus-thing to get into his pants?) or if Incubi and Succubi really were able to love the way everyone else understood the meaning of this sentiment.

When he came back out, he brushed off imaginary dust from his hood, before looking to Tucker who was standing in the middle of the room, observing him like he's a rare animal.

Technically seen, he is. Werecats were about to get extinct. They weren't that much anymore than they had been several hundred years ago.

"What?" snapped Wash a little bit harsher than intended. He didn't like to get stared at. He never had liked it and since the Project, he hated it even more.

"Uh- sorry, I didn't meant to annoy you. I was just wondering how the fuck you handled that."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I just don't like it. And handled what?"

"Okay… Whatever dude. How you handled an angry Junior? I would either get roasted or bitten in two if I tried to pull that stunt." He still looked at the taller blonde like he was some kind of precious and immensely worthy treasure, which would run away if he wouldn't keep an eye on him everytime.

Wash shrugged. He never had been good with children. He had no clue how he managed that.

"No idea. Maybe he was surprised that I hissed at him when he saw me. Last time I wasn't that aggressive towards him. It seemed to cool him down immediately when he realized he wouldn't scare me away."

"Wow, I really need to engage you as my personal helper when Junior freaks out."

"I have told him that he better learns to keep his shape shifting and emotional outbursts in check, otherwise you wouldn't allow him to go outside the Sanctuary. Besides, if he wouldn't obey what you tell him, he also wouldn't be allowed that. So either he tries and keeps his shapeshifting in check and obeys you and can go to his friend, or he changes when he likes, disobeys and has to stay at home."

Again, Tucker looked at the werecat as if he was some kind of freaking god. It was starting to freak the fuck out of Wash. "I really should make you come here more often." Tuckers face split into a huge grin. "You know what I mean besides calming Junior down. Bow chicka bow wow!"

Wash rolled his eyes. "You are such an idiot."

"Hey! I'm a ladies man, no men man!"

"You even scare away all the ladies with that strange behavior. No real surprise are you looking like starving every minute all the time."

"Hey, I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be a ladies man! And Junior neither! And I'm indeed hungry. Care to help me out?"

"Because you're an Incubus? No thanks, look for someone else."

"Yeah, baby! You know, Incubis and Succubi need sexual energy to survive. This human food may sate us for the moment, but to survive, we need sexual energy. Although one time sex lasts for about a month until it gets critical again. And why not? I thought you're a nice guy to help out a friend in need."

Was raised his eyebrow, looking skeptically at the man standing in front of him. "You call people your friends really fast. And I can't, even if I want to. Besides, who said I'm so generous, maybe I'm a sadistic asshole who loves to see you starve?"

"Hey! I'm actually underfed! No jokes about that I soon need again sexual energy or I'm going to go into rampaging mode in about a week."

"Rampaging mode?"

Tucker sighed, treading his fingers through his dreadlocks. "Then I'm going crazy from hunger, attacking everyone to get sexual energy. As almost everyone has a dirty mind, I get it. But I really don't want to ruin my reputation as a ladiesman." He waggled his eyebrows, what made Wash groan.

"And who fed you before?"

"Oh sometimes Kai, but she isn't allowed anymore. Or random ladies in town."

"I'm sure they are lining up for you."

"Actually, yes, they do!" replied Tucker happily puffing his chest. "Like I said, I'm the best around!"

"Absolutely." Deadpanned Wash, mustering the Incubi. His cheeks looked a bit hollow, indicating his underfed state he was in.

"Hey Wash?" It was again Tucker pulling his attention to the conversation.

"Hm?"

"What you said about helping and not being able to… What do you mean with that?"

"That I'm not sexually attracted to someone as long as I haven't bonded with him or her. Only after having a strong bond, I'm able to feel sexually attracted. In terms of a normal human, you could say I'm demisexual."

Tucker blinked a bit confused. "So that's a werecat thing? This mate-stuff?"

This time, Wash huffed annoyed. "I'm no fucking werewolf, Tucker. I'm not choosing a mate and all this shit. That's something those wolvens do. We werecats only bond with someone. Like a cat would stay with someone it likes. We get to know people without any dirty backthoughts, getting to know their real character. When we think we're okay with them, then the sexual aspect comes into play. This is our way to find the right partner for us. Unlike wolvens, we also don't die of loneliness when the bond-partner dies of age and other causes."

"I see, so this is the werecat-treat, like this mating thing is a wolven-treat?"

"Exactly, So if you excuse me, I would love to take a shower-"

"I can come with you." Butted Tucker in, again waggling his eyebrows.

"I go have a shower ALONE. I need to get this sulfuric reek off me. It's killing me." Excused Wash himself to really get his shower. This time he would go to the shower as a human and leave it in this form. It was better for his poor nerves and his health.

Days later, Wash just came from a short training session in the in-house training center. He had fled after the breakfast and Tuckers relentlessly flirting, just to have some moments of quiet.

Sure, Wash knew that Tucker needed food really urgently, but why not going to town and get a woman? He often bragged about how easily he was able to get into the bed of the ladies.

Walking to the shower, he shortly cleaned himself before peeking out of the shower. No wolves around. Okay, he guessed he could risk it to walk around in his cat-form.

Just when he was dressed and actually wanted to walk over to the library to read something, he saw Tucker coming from the gate. Looks like he brought Junior to school.

"Tucker!"

Looking up from his phone Tucker began to grin. "Hey, miss me already."

"Absolutely, I couldn't stand a minute more." Deadpanned Wash, not moving a muscle in his face.

"Seems so." Replied Tucker, showing his best smile.

"Why were you looking for me anyway?" They were walking towards Tuckers room to hang out a bit and play a video game. Often it was that Tucker was playing, while Wash tried to chase the dots and points on the screen as a cat.

"I wanted to ask you what this is all about."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me Tucker. You know what I mean. The flirting and stuff."

"Oh that… Well, you know about my critical state. I have two days left, so I guess I flirt with everyone being a potential feeder."

"You think I fit in this criterion?"

"Obviously."

Wash's tail flicking back and forth while he pondered about the information Tucker just gave him, before answering. "You know, I think I'm the falsest person when it comes to that. Besides, your flirt-attempts don't really have an effect on me."

"Falsest person?"

"Just leave it with that." Replied Wash, not wanting to answer more questions about his past.

"And why doesn't the flirting have effects on you?"

"I'm a werecat. Sexual attraction only comes with a strong bond and strong emotions. Like when a werewolf has found his mate, remember."

There was an embarrassing silence between them, Tucker staring on the ground.

"So you tell me that I'm making a complete fool outta myself?"

Wash made a movement with his head resembling a nod and a shake of his head at the same time.

"Okay, so you don't want me to flirt with me?"

"As if you could stop that..."

"Hey! I am who I am!" Tucker made a pouting face, which made Wash roll his eyes again.

"You really are who you are. However, just try to keep me out of your prey-scheme when going on a hunt."

"I can try…" answered Tucker, nervously chewing his lower lip.


	4. Chapter 4

Kimball, Carolina, York, North and Wash stood around a huge oak table, staring down on the groundplan of a building in Chinatown. It was a four-story building. On every floor was one apartment for one of the richer people living here. At least it had been planned like that. In the end, some multimillionaire bought the whole house, now using two stories for his own and the other two for his wife and kids

"Okay, just to get everything right: the Abnormal will get sold there today evening at midnight?" asked York, mustering the groundplan to find every lock on their way to the top story.

"Exactly." Confirmed Kimball, pointing on a room in the top story, almost in the middle of the house. "It will happen here. It's the only place big enough to house the cage with the Abnormal and all the potential buyers."

"How do we want to enter the building?" this was North asking, also mustering the plan attentively.

"Wash and I will enter the house by coming in over the roof, while Carolina will make her entry here." Kimball pointed on the western side of the building. There was a massive window.

"Carolina will come through the window after climbing the façade. The guards there will be no problem for you, I guess."

"No, absolutely not." Replied Carolina curtly, her eyes trained on the spot she would enter the building.

"Now to you and York. You two will enter the house here. It's a back entry with enough space for Sarge to drive the car over when we need to make a fast leave. There are locks at every door from the entry up to the selling room, which needed to get picked for our retreat. This'll be your task York." Explained Kimball.

Carolinas emeralds shifted from the plan to York, mustering the scars over his left eye. "You think you can handle that?"

York grinned, shrugging easily. "Sure thing, I will get these locks open. You know that I'm good not only with locks, Carolina."

"They're holographic, York. Your depth perception isn't that good anymore." Carolina ignored the last comment.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I do my best. You will be so impressed that you will go on a date after that with me. Alternatively, I can still tear down the door or unlock it from inside. Although I doubt you would go on a date with me then." Again this easy grin and shrug.

Carolina only rolled her eyes in response, focusing again on the grounplan.

North mustered him from the corner of his eyes, face still turned to the plan. He shortly followed the way they would have to take with his eyes, counting the locks. "That would make six locks, two of them are holographic."

"Indeed." Replied Kimball, pointing to the locks, which would cause most problems to York because of his damaged eye.

After they discussed the rest, Kimball began putting away the plans, Carolina taking the lead. "Okay guys. I want you in the armory at 2100, heading out at 2130. The mission will start at 2230. Copy?."

"Copy that." Answered the rest of the team, heading out for a short lunch before heading to the armory. It was already 8 p.m.

In the armory, North, York and Wash were already preparing to head out. They checked their guns, packed ammos and some grenades (Normal and stunning grenades).

York additionally packed his lock-picking set, giving his stuff to North. If he couldn't open the door with that, he would use a big door key to open it – a grenade. York only hoped he wouldn't have to knock at the first door with a grenade already and bust their cover way too early.

Wash still seemed to remember how to prepare from Freelancer-time, his movements swift and trained, not missing a beat when he stepped out of York's way.

His ears meanwhile turned in every direction possible, scanning the area for unknown sounds. His tail slightly flicked back and forth, indicating that he was as unsettled and nervous as the rest.

For Wash, York suspected, it must be the first mission since Freelancer. The first mission and again with the team he had been before shit hit the fan.

York could understand when he was nervous. Fuck, even he was nervous as fuck because of this mission.

Failing meant losing an Abnormal. Either by him or her getting sold to the highest paying person or by getting killed during their raid.

York always was nervous when it came to chasing down a wild Abnormal or free one from captivity. It always meant additional stress for the subject before it was able to really live without fearing to get caught and sold every minute.

Well, York stretched his back until it popped lightly, thinking about his task. The hololocks were installed at the last two doors, so if they had to break them down it would be easy. Only one thing was sure at this point. He had to make room for his friends to get out with the Abnormal as soon as they freed him. No matter at which cost. Even if he had to take a grenade to open up the door.

"You have everything?" asked North, stuffing away the pistol and the rest of Yorks equipment.

"Yep, ready to go." York stretched, walking towards the door to meet outside. Wash followed them suit, having more weapons with him than anyone else, but surprisingly well hidden and not attached to his body in case he would have to change his form. You wouldn't suspect this guy to be a walking arsenal.

Nothing new for the weapons specialist of the former project though.

Kimball and Carolina were already outside, wearing rather dark clothes. They looked like going on a walk with good friends, not like going to raid an illegal auction in Chinatown.

Entering the black box wagon of Kimball, they could see Sarge sitting there, waiting for them to start driving. During the drive, they were quiet. Even when Sarge stopped the car some streets away from the house and the guys got out, they were quiet. Everyone focused on their task to accomplish.

With a curt nod, the group split, everyone starting to head out towards their assigned directions.

North and York wandered to the eastern side of the building, North taking the lead, York following suit. The blonde, being an excellent sniper, checkmated the guards before they noticed them being around. Luckily North only used rather soft bullets with narcotics in it. The bullets would just pierce the skin and deliver the narcotic in the bloodstream underneath.

York immediately went to pick the lock after North cleared the field and gave him the go, opening the relatively easy lock without problems. The alarm system was also no problem.

The brunette reduced the entity-energy, entering the wall and messing up with the system. He made the system believe that everything still was perfectly fine and didn't need to start up a ruckus when they picked the other locks.

Pretty useful to turn into a ghost by reducing the entity-energy by your own free will. Coming back out, York slipped back in his clothes (Unfortunately he couldn't control them like the molecules of his body, before going to the next lock.

He could hear North shooting down more guards, keeping York's back while he opened lock by lock, having no problems with the mechanical ones. Picking them was more a thing of listening attentively when a cylinder snaps in the opening position. Holographic locks were much more difficult to pick. Even more, since he had lost his left eye.

During all the time, they could hear Kimball and Carolina inform the others about their location and how the situation looked like. North did the same for their part. During picking a lock, he heard Kimball giving orders to Carolina, something hissing in Kimballs background.

Looks like Wash's gone on a rampage again. He didn't need to turn into a full cat. It was enough to attack like he was. His fangs and claws were sharp like a fucking scalpel!

They were ahead of their scheduled time, but York knew that they will need the time for the holographic locks. The last lock, the one to one of the entries to the room, will be opened just when Kimball, Carolina and Wash will be ready to bolt.

Kneeling down, York began to fuzz with the first holographic lock, when they reached it. From the last lock, they had to run down a hallway, taking two turns to their right. All guards on their way are now having a nap for several hours. No dead people, just napping.

The door to the room was shut and locked for good measure. This lock also looked more difficult than the last. Intertwining his fingers and bending them until they cracked, York began analyzing the lock and trying to pick it.

It was a special type of holographic lock. Luckily, York already knew all the different types from the Project.

This one here would shift his upper levels when you move one of the lower one. You always needed your second hand to keep the upper rings from turning before you could start working at the next level. It's tricky, because sometimes you have to let go of one of the rings, just to move the one underneath. After moving this one, you need to turn back the higher level ring back in its unlocking position.

Behind him was a muffled noise, followed by a horrible cracking sound. Sounds like one's neck got snapped. York shortly glanced over his shoulder, seeing North knocking another guy out with a perfectly aimed hit with the butt of his pistol.

For a person with his bulky and vast build, North moved surprisingly smooth and silent, taking the spot beside York to keep an eye on both sides of the floor. He shortly informed Kimball by radio that they were at the second last door, ready to unlock the last door as soon as they got her go. She told them to stay on standby and wait with unlocking it definitely before she would give her go.

The brunette whooped lowly when he managed to open the lock fast. Almost as fast as his old top score. Reducing his entity-energy, York ran through the colons of guards standing there, leaving it to North to deal with them. He knew that the blonde had no problems dealing with that much enemies at once.

While he began to pick the second holographic lock, informing Kimball that they were already at it. The leader of the Sanctuary spontaneously ordered them to help if he managed to get the lock open in the next four minutes.

Behind York, he heard dull sounds of a pistol being fired, followed by a groan. One of the guards sank to his knees, a nice red spot blossoming on his grey shirt. Although York must admit, red and grey don't fit well together. They're a pain for the eyes.

One of the guards tried to sneak up on North who was occupied with four others. York let the lock be, whirling around to kick the enemies legs away from under his body.

To manipulate the lock, he already had to increase his entity-energy and become a full human again. Lucky him, this helped him now.

Just when the guard was about to get up, York landed his fist in the guys throat. He heard the cracking of bones inside, being pretty damn sure that he broke his laryngeal.

His suspicion got confirmed when the man made a gurgling noise, grabbing his throat. York let him and the other guards be. The guy would be dead within three minutes and North would take out the rest.

While walking away to again mess up the lock he hear the guy fall to the ground and gurgle, desperately trying to get air into his lungs. Only that his lungs filled with blood instead of air. Little streamlets of crimson red blood dropped out of his nose and mouth, indicating clearly that he had blood in his lung.

York couldn't care less.

Sure they had the order from Kimball to spare as many lives as possible. Most of them weren't even hurt that bad. Nothing a surgery and some days rest could heal. Only the guy here spitting blood. He was dead. But well, York didn't had time to ask him nicely to stop sneaking up on North.

With a low click, the door opened, just in time to see the blinding light of a flash grenade explode.

"Son of a bitch!" York jumped back into safety, trying to blink away the dark spots in his peripheral vision. One eye damaged and the other blinded by the flash grenade, what a great position to run into a fight like that!

Rubbing his eyes, he had to wait some moments until he could see a bit better, before rounding the corner and running after North who already jumped in the middle of the warzone.

The millionaires began to scream when suddenly two more guys appeared, making clear that those asshats were cornered from all sides. Those guys did what they could do best and began running around like headless hens.

All the while Kimball and Wash managed to open the cage and free the Abnormal. First he was reluctant. York couldn't see the Abnormal as the person in there used the shadows for cover. While Wash kept the guards on distance, Kimball talked to the abnormal still hiding in the cage.

The brunette could understand that he was reluctant and anxious about what happened. He didn't want to imagine how long the Abnormal have had to be in this cramped cage until he came up here, only to see dozens of swollen up and greasy faces, every single one foreign, but only bad news.

Getting kidnapped and going through something like that without having some familiar face around is really tough and you often need some time to trust people again.

However, after some minutes (an eternity considering the ongoing fight here) the Abnormal slowly began to move, stepping out of the cage.

To York's surprise, there were two Abnormals in the cage. One with a dark olive, almost brown skin and leaves in his hair, whilst the other clearly was a Faunus. The one with the dark olive skin had an arm slung around the Faunus' shoulders, leaning heavily on him.

The Faunus didn't look to well himself, swaying a bit under the additional weight of his cellmate, but determined to keep him upright and not leaving him back.

The whole situation brought some relieve, knowing that the Abnormals were at least still alive. However, York found it strange, that there had been a Faunus in the cage. He always had thought Faunus got extinct long time ago?

Kimball and Wash gently began to herd the two young boys to the door. Wash carrying the almost unconscious boy, while Kimball helped the Faunus.

"York! North! Help Carolina! Buy us some time before retreating!" Shouted Kimball when they passed the two men, standing a bit back to secure the exit they just opened.

"Okay!" York and North both bolting forward, attacking the guards coming, trying to keep them away from the group. Besides the exit they had taken, there was only one other entry. That's where the guards came from.

York luckily had thought about blocking the doors to this exit, granting a halfway smooth retreat after they were done here.

Although this buying time would probably take longer than normally. Looking at the two rescued boys, York doubted they would be able to make a fast start. They were slow. The bulkier one looked pretty bad off, his skin sickly white while he seemed to die soon. He looked like he would constantly be at the brink to unconsciousness, slipping in and out, not really realizing what happened. The Faunus on the other hand was limping. His leg had a nasty angle, and the fur around the strange kink looked sticky with blood.

Great… Those assholes didn't only chase freely living Abnormals for their own monetary profit, but also inflict them heavy wounds without bothering to treat them properly. If the Faunus was unlucky, he would lose his leg because of those ignorant assholes of 'normalos'!

Seeing such things always made York wanting to puke. In the face of such greedy people.

Ducking to avoid a painful hit with a baton against his head, the brunette kicked the legs out from his attacker's body, making him fall to the ground. Luckily his head connected rather painfully with an ancient vase (not sorry about that, dude's got enough money to buy a new one), knocking him out for at least two hours.

North beside him sent two guys to dreamland by hitting their heads together. The crunching sound of bones connecting with bones made York shiver. He hated this sound.

Carolina was at the front row, thinning out the masses of guards coming in. When she obviously decided there was enough time over, even for the injured Abnormals, to get down and in the car, she threw a grenade, again stunning the guards coming after them.

"Out!"

Spinning on her heel, she followed the two men towards the exit.

Just when they were about to leave the room too, North suddenly turned his head to a scream coming from behind them. His eyes became wide in horror, when he shouted. "Carolina! Watch out!"

Nevertheless, it was too late. The next thing York heard (He hadn't had the opportunity to turn around because he had to knock out a guard who had come to earlier than expected, was the awful sound of a knife cutting through fabric and flesh, cutting apart muscles and sinews and veins.

Turning around too, he could see that someone had stabbed Carolina in the back, where her heart was. Her eyes were impossibly wide, the emeralds showing surprise and disbelieve. She was so stunned about the attack that she didn't even scream from pain. She simply forgot it.

"Carolinaa!" the brunette turned on his heels, just in time to see blood dribble down from Carolinas lips on her teal shirt and her sparkling emeralds getting dull before she fell to the ground lifelessly.

Within moments, his shock turned into pure rage, attacking the murderer of his crush (York was still in debate whether it was already love or not) with an anger, making every Diacom jealous.

He began to swing at the murderer of Carolina, his fists connecting with his face and body, breaking every bone they connected with. He kicked him in his abdomen, causing severe internal damages with only one hit, before letting his knee shoot up when the guy toppled over, effectively breaking the already broken nose a second time. Additionally, he felt one of the cheekbones crack.

His next hit broke the guys jaw and knocking out some teeth. Another fist cracked the rest of his still whole his ribs. When the guard tried to lung at York with a grimace showing pain and anger, the ex-Freelancer simply snapped his hand and arm, before dislodging his shoulder with an awful cracking sound and an agonized scream of the victim.

He still viciously swung at the guy, drawing blood at the most impossible places, inflicting open fractures and a pierced lung. One of the ribs must have jabbed the lung as the guy began to hack up blood while desperately trying to at least defend himself.

"Stop it York!"

"He deserves it!" Another hit to the guys jaw.

"There's no reason in killing him as revenge! It won't bring her back!"

"I don't care!" This time at his back, just where the left kidney was.

North sighed heavily. "Either you beat the shit out of this guy or you help me getting Carolina back to the car."

"I want to do both!"

"You already did first. Now come on, help me get her back. You need to keep my back while I carry her."

It sounded reasonable enough for the brunette to not beat the guy to dead. Although, how he looked right now, York wasn't sure if he would survive that. He knew he would feel horrible after the adrenaline rush was over hand his logic would make him feel bad.

Letting go of the guy, he stomped ahead of North, only wanting to get the fuck away from here.

If he had continued beating up the guy, North simply would have turned him to a ghost. North still had more control over York's powers, being able to effectively stop him by reducing his entity-energy to a minimum when he snapped like this. It was a blessing sometimes, but also a curse at all the other times. York couldn't decide whether he should think of this as blessing or curse in this special moment.

While North pulled out the bloody knife and picked Carolina up, York was already waiting outside the door, securing the way. Although York stopped the beating on his own, North seemed to have decided that it was better to not give York another opportunity to beat someone up. He still held back most of York's entity-energy, letting him only the option to warn North before someone came, but not enough energy for a solid form to hit someone.

Until they reached the car Kimball, Sarge, Wash and the two boys waited for them, they didn't meet other guards. Obviously, they had peed their pants and fled with their tails between their legs. Or were sleeping soundly on one of the floors in the house.

York would have loved to beat some more to mush. He was angry. Furious. And sad. All at the same time.


	5. Chapter 5

When they arrived at the Sanctuary, York only felt numb.

He didn't feel anger.

He didn't feel joy.

He didn't feel sadness.

He didn't notice North gently herding him to the shower to get clean.

He didn't notice the water to be too hot, burning his skin.

He didn't notice how North lead him to the mess after that, trying to make him eat something.

He didn't feel hungry.

He didn't feel tired.

He simply felt _nothing_.

When North finally left him alone after dinner, York wandered around without an idea to where he actually wanted to. He wandered through walls and hallways without noticing the difference, ignoring the people standing around, staring at him.

He was too deep in thoughts to bother. He hadn't seen how the guy had rammed the knife into her back, but he had heard it. It was the most sickening sound he had ever heard.

However, his thoughts now were with Carolina.

They had met each other some years ago in the project, York immediately head over heels for her. It had been a crush first, York crushing on every girl he would see first and appeal to him. In Carolinas case however, it soon became more, this crush stubbornly being here all the time, soon turning into something more.

This _something_ made him restless when Carolina was on a mission. It made him angry when one of the other guys tried to flirt with her. It made him sad when he saw Carolina struggle for her father's acceptance every day without achieving it.

When he snapped out of his reverie, he noticed that his feet brought him to the room they brought Carolina to.

She was wearing a white gown and her skin looked unnaturally pale. Even without this white gown empathizing this paleness.

Her hair was open and freshly washed and combed, smelling like her shampoo she already used in the project. Her hands were folded over her belly, eyes closed. She looked like she would sleep. York had the strange idea that she almost looked like sleeping beauty. Maybe he would have to kiss her too to wake her up?

Unlike sleeping beauty, Carolina was dead York knew that she didn't 'just' sleep. He had seen the knife in her back. Had seen the blood running down her chin like a bloody tear. He had seen the fatal realization of what happened in her eyes. He had seen her die.

She was dead.

She was here so everyone could say goodbye before she would get buried on the graveyard on the propriety. Before she would disappear and decay in a lovely decorated grave. Nevertheless, a grave was a grave, no matter how lovely you might decorate it. It was the definite end, the last way your body would have to go.

York gently brushed one of her bloody red bangs out of her face. They were almost too long. Sure thing Carolina would have gone to the hairdresser in the days after their mission. Getting them cut and dyed again.

Neither of them would have imagined her now being dead. A cold corpse laying on the table, all alone in a huge tiled room, only wearing a simple white gown. Couldn't Kimball at least put her in some of her favorite clothes?

He laid his hand on her cold cheek, his thumb ghosting over her cheekbone.

He felt horrible. He should have gone last. When he would have reduced his entity-energy, the guy wouldn't have been able to stab and kill him. He would have simply fallen through him. If only he had told Carolina to run first, taking her spot at the end of the group.

"You shouldn't blame yourself about what happened."

York didn't bother looking up when he heard Kimball enter the room. "I know. But still… I still think that I should have gone last. The guy couldn't have harmed me." His voice sounded hoarse and breathy.

There was a long silence, before Kimball again spoke up. "I think its better we leave her alone now."

"I want to stay here."

The warm smile on Kimball's lips was audible in her voice. "I know York, but believe me. I think it's better we leave her alone for an hour or so. You too may need some distance."

"Why?"

"Let me explain that in the room next door." Kimball pointed to a door, which lead to the observation room.

Letting go of Carolinas hand, York followed the leader of the Sanctuary. She always had very good reasons when she would take someone away from mourning over someone's dead. Or… No matter what it was, she always had good reasons for something she did.

After Kimball closed the door, both of them began to stare at Carolinas body through the thick glass window still laying on the stretcher – Lifeless.

"Tell me York, what do you know about Phoenixes?"

"Phoenixes? You mean those fiery birdies?"

A smile appeared on Kimball's lips. "Exactly. What do you know about them?"

York shortly tried to recapitulate what he heard about this kind of mythological creatures.

"They often are showed to be the counterparts of dragons in Asian mythology. They usually have orange to red feathers and their attributed element is fire. They also are fire and heat resistant."

"Exactly. What do you know about their life cycles?"

York tapped his index finger against his lips, thinking hard. "I only know that they get reborn from their ashes. They burn when they die."

The smile got a bit broader. "Exactly. This is why I brought her in here. This room is fireproof."

There was a long silence, York staring at Kimball, who was observing the lifeless body in the room beside.

"Wait a second, you say that Carolina is a Phoenix!?" blurted the ghost out, suddenly something clicking in York's head.

"Yes, she told me that just when you guys arrived."

"But why you? Don't get me wrong, it's okay that you know. But she never told us!"

"She thought it's better to be a secret. This thing about her almost immortality. It'll freak a lot of people out and could attract more bad people than it already did."

"Almost?"

"Well, every blessing gets accompanied by a curse. However, it's not my decision or task to tell you about it or not. You'll have to ask Carolina about it."

"But… Why didn't she get reborn by now?" That he was sure that Carolina won't tell him about her abilities in detail, he won't tell Kimball.

Kimball sighed wearily. "I can't tell York. She told me it sometimes takes up to six hours for her spirit to find back to her body to initiate the rebirth. However, as it is the first time I whiteness that too, I can't tell you if it's going well or not. I guess we have to wait and see."

"But-" York wanted to object, only to get interrupted by the loud blaring sound, like the roaring of a dragon and the blinding light of a fire suddenly filling the whole room Carolina had been in.

"Son of a…" the rest of the words stuck in his throat when he saw the inferno in the room, filling the window with nothing but fire. Instinctively, York made a step back, while Kimball observed the happening with genuine curiosity.

"Amazing!"

"You think that's amazing!? I think it's fucking terrifying!" screeched York from the back of the room, pressing his back flat against the wall, eyes wide from fear, breathing shallow.

As suddenly as the fire appeared, it vanished, without leaving a trace of being there.

Astonished, York stepped to the window, looking around in the room. The fire hadn't damaged one single thing! Although it seemed like hell broke loose!

The walls still were perfectly white, the table standing beside the stretcher still was intact, as well as the stretcher. Just the person laying on the stretcher had taken damage. There was still a person laying, but the body was all charred.

Impossible for the body to revive without any scar left. Let alone revive at all.

And yet, the body began to move!

The body began to fucking _MOVE_!

Somewhat terrified, somewhat curious the brunette observed with the leader of the sanctuary how the body sat up, the charred pieces beginning to fall off. In this process, they began to reveal smooth ivory skin. Blonde hair began to grow out of the skull, while more and more pieces of coal fell to the ground.

After minutes of just sitting there and watching the pieces fall to the ground, Kimball managed to tear away her gaze, quickly walking into the room. York didn't had the possibility to follow. Moreover, he was sure that Kimball wouldn't let him go with her as Carolina was naked. The gown hadn't survived the fire. York now understood why she wasn't wearing her clothes.

When he saw her get up, he turned away. He had that much decency to not openly stare when a woman was naked. Especially Carolina.

He was sure that Kimball would offer her the quilt she had brought in when she came. When he heard someone call his name, he carefully turned around, seeing Carolina with the quilt around her, only her bare feet and head still visible, the rest hidden by the fabric, Kimball standing beside her.

Walking to the frame of the window, York hit the button to activate the intercom.

"York, would you mind going upstairs and inform Grey to come down for a medical check-up?"

"Okay, ma'am." York released the button, quickly making his way upstairs to get to Grays study. He was sure she was there at this time of the day. It was morning and slowly everyone woke up, Gray already on her feet to welcome early birds.

"Hey Grey, Carolina is back. Kimball orders you to get down and check her up."

"Oh! I haven't slept at all because I impatiently waited for her to be reborn! I can't wait to do a medical check-up on her! Maybe I should psychoanalyze her too? I'm sure there's a difference in personality during the first day! Oh, I'm so excited!" She clapped in her hands to emphasize different parts of her rambling, beaming like a kid on Christmas day.

York only felt weirded out by her behavior, also feeling a bit pissed because she was so happy-go-lucky in such a situation.

All the way down the witch chattered about the upcoming examination, York trying to endure her relentless talking until they were down in the medical examination room, although feeling weirded out more and more by every minute passing.

Carolina was already in, Kimball by her side.

"Uhm, Carolina?" She lift her head, looking a bit disheveled but questioningly at him. He wondered why she didn't reply.

"She can't speak now. Her vocal cords still need to develop fully. It'll take about a day. Just ask." Kimball must be some kind of telepath too because she must have read his thoughts to know what he was asking himself.

"Uh- I just wanted to ask, should I bring you some clothes down from your room? To change after the examination?"

The phoenix sitting on the bed nodded, signaling that the conversation was over when she focused on Grey now starting her examination.

The brunette turned around, making his way up to Carolinas room. After getting her clothes, he went back to the medical room, waiting outside, while Carolina still got examined.

When all was over, the ghost went in, giving her the clothes with slightly burning cheeks. Did he really feel embarrassed because he had to look through her panties and bras to get something comfortable for her? How old was he? Thirteen? At least he felt like it just now…

Taking the clothes with another nod, York scurried out of the room. He waited outside while he heard Kimball and Grey talk. There were shuffling sounds beside their conversation. York thought that this must be Carolina putting on her clothes.

Minutes after, the door opened, Kimball coming out together with Grey and Carolina. She still looked a bit dazed. But that might be because of the rebirthing-process. At least he hoped it. He didn't want a different Carolina. He wanted her the way she was before.

"York?" Kimball's words pulled him out of his thoughts the second time this day. He looked over to her, signaling that he was listening.

"Unfortunately, Grey and I have important appointments right now. Would you be so kind and help Carolina until she feels better?"

"Can do." Replied the ghost while chewing his lower lip. "Is that okay for you Carolina?"

He expected everything. From a curt shaking of her head to a dismissive sign saying something like 'Whatever'.

What he didn't expect, and which made him stand there gaping at the phoenix, was her smiling and nod. This was so completely out of Carolinas character! This was not how Carolina had been. But it was nice. Fuck it! It was fucking awesome to see her smile like that!

However, it still wasn't Carolina how she had been. Well, York still hoped it was because of the rebirthing process.

"Good. I'll leave you two now. York, just call me or Grey if you or Carolina need something, okay?"

"Okay."

The leader smiled fondly at them, before turning around and following Grey to the room next door. York knew that they had another session to get Caboose to control his abilities. Forlorn hope.

"So…" York awkwardly scratched the back of his head while looking over to Carolina.

"You're hungry?" A shake of her head.

"You wanna shower?" another shake. God was this strange…

"What then?"

Carolina opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She shortly looked a bit confused, before laying her hands together, placing them under her titled head.

"You wanna sleep? You tired?" This time Carolina nodded. York's features lighted up. "Cool. Then come on. I bring you to your room."

It was so strange to see that Carolina followed him around this time. Normally, it would be him following her. Yet here he was, Carolina trailing along behind him and following his lead. This was so fucking strange. Don't get him wrong, for once, it was cool. Somehow. Nevertheless, strange at the same time because he was used to something completely different.

They crossed the hallways, luckily nobody was around. Checking his clock, York assumed that everyone must be in the mess for breakfast. That was okay too. On this way, nobody would see her in this state.

Up in her room, York pointed to the cellphone on Carolinas bedside table.

"If you need something, just text me, okay? I'm in my room next door." Carolina nodded, typing a short 'Thanks' on her mobile, before she slipped under her blanket.

She was out like a light only moments later.

York shortly made sure she really was okay, before leaving her room and going over to his. Kicking off his clothes, he also slipped under his blanket. Before he fell asleep, he made sure his mobile phone would ring as loud as possible, waking him up with some blaring tune, when Carolina wrote him. He didn't want to sleep through while Carolina needed something and wrote him text after text.


	6. Chapter 6

Some days following the mission, Simmons sat in the infirmary with the two newcomers.

Both looked better than before, although they still had a long way to go for a full recovery.

The Faunus' leg in particular would take up to two months to heal properly. Kimball had to break the bone again to set it right.

Crutches stood beside the bed to allow the Faunus to walk around if he really needed to. Although Kimball was adamant about him staying in bed and only getting up for the most urgent of matters.

If it had been up to Kimball entirely given that, he would have gotten a chamber pot close by for relieving himself and a bell to help see to everything else so that he could stay recuperating off of his feet as much as possible.

Luckily, Carolina intervened and made it very clear that he would be getting crutches in order to go to a proper toilet.

Simmons was sure she had said that mostly because it would be her task to empty the chamber pot in the mornings. Kimball wouldn't do it and Simmons wouldn't be able to do so because he would throw up. He wasn't really good at that sort of thing at all, which was something he would definitely have to improve upon if he wanted to earn a Master in the three divisions of biology.

Beside the Faunus sat a dark skinned guy. He still looked pale and weak, although he seemed to be doing a little bit better.

The leaves on his head still looked dry, as though they were missing water for some strange reason. Or were they an indication of the boy's health? If that was true, then he would have to come up with a good solution to get the guy feeling well as soon as possible.

Simmons highly doubted that the young man would do better if he spent even more days down here.

When he did the rudimentary examination of the two new arrivals, he went to the Faunus first who was lounging on the bed with his broken leg propped up on some pillows and in a brace. It was always better to take weight from the injured limb. By putting it up, the blood will flow backwards to unburden the fracture.

Sitting down beside the good leg of the Faunus, Simmons searched for the account he had already prepared.

There also was a photograph. Wash had been nice and made a photo of each of them.

The Faunus was smiling broadly like Tucker of Donut would in photographs. The other one was looking angry: a bit like Church or Grif. Just a bit.

Looking up the name on the account, Simmons asked. "So your name is Charles Palomo?"

"Yep, that's my name." replied the Faunus happily.

God, this guy was the same idiot like Tucker and Donut. Simmons managed not to roll his eyes somehow while he entered the name in the database.

Since Red Team and Blue Team were full, Kimball had ordered to open up a new Team. Team Chorus.

These two guys would be the first members of that group.

"Okay, so you're a Faunus."

"Obviously." Palomo swung the blanket back, showing his animalistic legs.

This time the guy beside him rolled his eyes. "Shut the fuck up, Palomo."

Simmons sighed. This was going to be a long day.

He entering age and all other necessary information in the database after finally managing to get Palomo to talk about those fields. He was easily distracted like Tucker and just as perverted. And since Simmons wasn't the most adept at putting up with Tucker's attitude for lengthy periods, logically he wasn't too good when it came to dealing with Palomo's either.

They were the same in a lot of respects which meant that Simmons couldn't get along as well with both of them as well as he might others.

Tucker and Simmons were friends, that was for sure, but they weren't extremely close friends. Their personalities were way too different for them to be close friends like he and Grif were.

Grif put up with his fears and insecurities, while Simmons could get along with his laziness and love for Oreos for the most part. Grif would listen to him best of all when he was a wolven even.

When he was ready, he turned to the other guy and opened the other newly set up account.

"Antoine Bitters." the guy stated automatically, not even waiting for Simmons to ask that specific question.

"Okay, I suppose you're a wood nymph?"

"Dryad." Corrected the guy, looking at Simmons with an utterly bored expression.

Simmons now had even more of an impression that a smaller copy of Grif was lying there on the bed. The only thing missing from that notion was that if Grif had been there instead he would have asked Simmons if he was done already because he was tired and wanted to nap.

"Okay, Dryad." He paused before asking for clarification's sake, "Dryad or a Hamadryad?"

"Just Dryad. Otherwise I wouldn't be alive since those assholes only got us by clearing the forest we lived in."

Simmons entered in the information, "I see. You're the only survivors?"

Bitters shook his head, "Nah, just the only ones who got saved."

"Do you know where the others are?"

"Nope, no idea. They kept us in a warehouse after that, just taking the guys out that some millionaires or dealers wanted." He frowned before adding, "So we don't know where the rest are now."

"Hm…" Simmons shortly made a note about that in another computer program, so that they could run a search for auctions all around the globe.

Maybe they would find some more of Bitters and Palomo's people through that. That might even help them to get over the loss of their home a bit easier if they managed to do so.

When Simmons was done with the administrative tasks and was about to leave, he came up with an idea, "Hey, Bitters?"

"That's my name."

"Obviously, asshole." He sighed before getting to the point, "Don't you Dryads need a tree or forest in order to feel well? Even more to heal when you're injured or ill?"

Bitters scoffed, "Why do you think I feel like shit?"

Simmons rolled his eyes, biting back another snarky comment and instead told him, "If you feel well enough I can show you the backyard." He elaborated, "There's an oak. If you feel better around trees, you should probably go up there."

As Simmons had his back to the Dryad, he didn't see his eyes lighting up in anticipation.

He only heard shuffling when Bitters swung his legs out of the bed and trudged over to Simmons. He wore a tan sweater with orange trims and sweatpants of the same color. Some slippers completed the look.

"Okay, let's go." Bitters seemed eager to get moving

Simmons looked over at the lonely Faunus still resting nearby, "You don't want to take him with you?"

Bitters shook his head, only casting a short reassuring glance back to his friend before saying, "No thanks, I would appreciate some hours alone right now."

"Okay." Simmons reluctantly replied, shortly waving at the Faunus before taking the lead and showing Bitters the oak.

The moment the Dryad saw the oak, it looked like his face gained back a lot of his original color. His complexion looked much healthier and his eyes lit up. When he walked towards the oak, he already seemed to have made a connection with the tree.

"Wow, this pal is fucking huge. And fucking old."

"Around two hundred years." Simmons elaborated.

"Wow. Fucking old." Repeated the Dryad in awe, carefully resting a hand on the trunk of the tree, "And it's doing pretty well for being in the middle of a concrete desert."

Simmons walked over until he stood next to the tree, pointing southwards. "There's an underground river flowing some hundred meters underneath. The tree gets his water and nutrients from there."

He nodded in the direction of the tree once more before continuing with the explanation, "Besides, Kimball is very fond of the tree. She planted it when she founded the sanctuary network. She looks after him like her baby, even giving him fertilizer twice a year and making sure that he always gets enough water."

Bitters looked up in awe, taking in the bright green leaves overhead.

"If you'd want, I can tell Kimball that you will take over the fostering of the oak." Simmons offered, watching his reaction, "You only have to tell her about the tree's needs."

"As long as it's only this tree, I think I can do that. Everything here would be way too much work." Again, Simmons had a strange reminiscence to Grif following that remark. They really were alike in a lot of respects.

Seeing Bitters sitting down at the roots of the tree, he made a short notice about the new task the arrival had just taken over, "I'll assign you a room in the house where you can be when you aren't here."

"I don't need one."

"Maybe," Simmons conceded, "But it is Kimball's order that every guest here has their own room as long as we have enough space for our guests to each have their own room."

"Okay, Whatever." Bitters had seemed to pretty much stop listening completely once Simmons had proposed that he take over the care of the tree besides.

Turning around and walking away, he could see Bitters still standing there when he cast a look backwards: obviously listening to what the oak tree was telling him.

Simmons sighed, deciding to quickly inform Kimball about the changes in plans concerning Bitters before heading to class.

Although Kimball wouldn't be pleased to hear that Bitters had left his bed, she maybe would understand Simmons' reasons. Even more when she heard that Bitters was feeling much better as soon as he came into contact with the oak.

It had been Kimball herself who taught Simmons the story, physiognomy, and the treatments of Dryad and wood nymphs after all. It was only fitting that he should actively apply that knowledge whenever it was appropriate.

Tucker went over to Wash's room to get him out of bed. It was already afternoon and the werecat was still sleeping.

Okay, considering the happenings during the last days the blonde had hardly slept at all. Some sleep would certainly help given that, but sleeping through the whole day would make him giddy in the evening and that would fuck up his sleep-schedule even worse.

He was a dad: he knew what he was talking about!

When Wash didn't reply to his knocking he went ahead and entered the room. He could see the ex-Freelancer lying on his bed. He was in his human form, laying on his belly, ears turned around, indicating that he was deeply asleep.

He almost looked cute the way he looked just then.

Wait, what!?

Tucker immediately had the strong urge to run the fuck away and bleach his brain for those thoughts.

Maybe he only thought that because Tucker knew that Wash was a cute kitten when he was in his cat form.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he poked Wash's cheek.

"Dude, wake up. It's already afternoon."

Wash mumbled something and turned his head away from Tucker, not waking up.

Tucker huffed.

"Wash, come on." He was poking his head by this point, Tucker assuming that he would wake up at least partially on account of being pissed off by that.

What he heard instead was a low purr, coming from deep within Wash's throat.

The guy was seriously fucking purring!

The whole situation was so fucking hilarious, Tucker couldn't help but begin to laugh.

Of course that happened to be the sound that would wake Wash up.

He jerked up, head almost colliding with Tucker's.

Sitting upright, he saw the laughing Incubus on his bed. Naturally, Wash was confused by this.

"What the fuck is going on here? What are you doing here?"

"You… You are fucking purring!" Replied Tucker, wheezing with laughter and with tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.

Wash's eyes narrowed slightly, his ears turning around to lie flatly on his skull, indicating his annoyance, "I am a cat, of course I purr."

"In your human form?"

"I only sleep in cat-form. Easier to run and hide."

Tucker shook his head, still giggling like the moron he was.

"Nah man, you were sleeping in human form. I poked your head to wake you up and you began to purr."

Wash's eyes became slits, but that didn't look half as menacing as it should have due to the blush that began to creep up from his neck to his face.

"I still am a werecat. No matter if I'm in human form or not." The blonde shot back, trying to fight down his embarrassment.

Tucker couldn't help but laugh at this hilarious situation. Sure he knew that you couldn't hide your instincts, but seeing a grown-ass man purr when getting poked in the head was just too ridiculous. Not to mention cute.

Seeing his unguarded and relaxed features in sleep combined with that soft purring, even remembering that now made Tucker want to kiss the werecat and – _He should really stop thinking about such shit. Now!_

"I didn't say it's bad, dude. Just that the situation was pretty funny." Tucker tried playing it cool and shrugged, "Don't get your panties in a bunch."

"No, not my panties, just my boxers." Wash corrected in a surprisingly cheeky manner for him, before he yawned, "Why did you come over anyway?"

Tucker blinked twice before he seemed to recover from Wash's unexpected return, "Oh yeah."

The reason he had stopped by in the first place came to mind once more. He was grateful for the continued distraction from his earlier thoughts about cute werecats purring in their sleep along with Wash's incredibly sexy and cheeky answer and – _Tucker!_

"It's already past lunchtime. I thought you would maybe want to get up and work out a bit instead of sleeping through the day and staying up all night." He told him, "You're not Church, after all."

There was a long silence between the two Abnormals, before Wash carefully spoke.

"You are aware that cats can sleep up to twenty hours a day?"

"Really?" Tucker looked both surprised and impressed by that new information, "Wow, dude, that's fucking long."

"Exactly." Wash nodded, glad to see it was soaking into the other's head, "That's why you didn't really need to wake me up in the first place."

Tucker pouted a bit at that, "I just wanted to be polite."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. No need to get all cranky!

"By poking me in the head and laughing at me?" Wash asked dryly, raising his left eyebrow questioningly at the same time.

"Hey! I said it was funny, okay?" The Incubus got slightly annoyed at Washington's comment, "I'm sorry if you look fucking adorable when you are asleep and purring!"

Tucker's mouth snapped shut when he realized what he just said. He was an Incubus: he didn't usually feel ashamed for saying such things to potential prey. However, he had learned while being with humans in particular that you shouldn't really blurt out things like that to just anyone.

Besides, Wash already mentioned that he was making a fool out of himself when he was trying to flirt with him. No strong bond to a person, no sexual attraction, therefore there was no use flirting. Something like that, in that order.

At least Tucker remembered it that way.

The awkward silence spreading over them like a blanket had nothing to do with the usual comfortable silence they shared while being together. This time it felt awkward, strange, and somehow completely Tucker's fault.

Wash rummaged around beside him, putting on his trousers and his hoodie while Tucker sat on the bed and bit his cheek, berating himself for his behavior.

It was strange. Although he just had eaten, (luckily, a woman had been drunk enough to not care or notice his strange behavior) and he had promised Wash never to do strange stuff like trying to flirt with him as long as there was no strong bond between them, every so often he would break this rule.

He couldn't say why. Normally he would stick to his promises (he had to be a good example for his son, after all!). Besides, he usually wouldn't be that flirtatious when just having eaten.

When he was hungry, he could understand this odd behavior easily enough, but what happened here was just fucking strange.

Seriously. Even for _him_.

"So, uh, I think Junior is coming back from school soon." Tucker jumped up from Wash's bed, running a hand through his dreads as he did so nervously, "So yeah, I better go and wait for him at the entrance."

The Incubus moved towards the door, trying to talk his way all the while through the time he needed to get to the door and out of Wash's room.

"I bet he's already standing in the hallway and waiting for me. So, uh, just go back to sleep or whatever."

He was out the door before Wash could reply, sure that he had ruined the last little bit of positive feelings Wash had for him as he did so.

It was three o'clock and Junior would show up soon at the door.

Sure, Tucker normally is allowed to leave the Sanctuary whenever he wanted, but Kimball had ordered him to stay there currently. He had already caused enough bar fights and brawls with his impossible behavior. He would rather stay in the Sanctuary and thoroughly clean the house he was assigned to before getting her more upset over that.

Kai and the young changeling would get brought to the school with all the other younger people from the Sanctuary by Sarge in the huge van Kimball owned. No need for any parent or brother or what-have-you to leave the Sanctuary to get the kids back from school.

There were some inhabitants of the Sanctuary, who actually accepted Kimball's offer to go to the high school or college on the outskirts of the Sanctuary.

There were also others living there like Simmons who opted for alternative ways to continue their education. The risk that he would turn invisible when he was nervous and initiate a mass panic was way too high, which had led to Simmons attending the online college instead. Kimball wouldn't deny someone his scholarly career if he or she really wanted to pursue it. There were always numerous paths to get to someone's personal set goals.

Others also opted to gain their degrees online only because they felt there was too much risk involved with interacting with Normal society like Simmons had felt given his abilities, or they were those who could get aggressive or just loved to use their abilities to play pranks.


	7. Chapter 7

"So tell me again, um… I really must apologize for my manners, I haven't even asked for your name yet."

Kimball sat in her chair in the Sanctuary, her hands resting on top of each other on the massive wooden desk she claimed as her own.

The monitors sitting on the desk were running showing different places in the Sanctuary through the eyes of the dozens of cameras installed here for the inhabitants' safety. The pictures shown would change to another camera in a fixed rhythm.

In front of her in one of the huge armchairs, a young boy with blonde hair and eyes so dark they almost seem black sat there, shifting uncomfortably while he stared down at his hands. Following his glance, Kimball could see that he was kneading them uncomfortably.

His shoulders were hunched, like he was trying to make himself as small as possible. His eyes darted around the room anxiously, trying to see every inch of the room as if he was afraid that some kind of monster could jump out of a corner he hadn't checked. He looked scared, but also timid. That combination meant it would be a bit more difficult to get through to him.

Every wrong movement or word could scare him away, making him retreat into himself and making getting through his barriers even more challenging. It was always more difficult to earn the trust of such a person.

She knew that well enough not only from her years of experience interacting with others in general, but also from the last candidate she had met with a similar countenance some years ago: Simmons.

"I… hadn't said it either. I don't like it." The boy's voice wasn't much louder than the squeak of a mouse.

Kimball smiled encouragingly, waiting for the young man to muster up the courage to tell her his name.

Indeed, she was right. After some minutes, the young man seemed to notice that she wouldn't pry into his privacy and was instead waiting for him until he felt ready to reveal more to her.

"It's Matthews. My first name is Richard." He eventually told her before stating once again, "But I don't like it."

Kimball smiled warmly at the memory of someone else quite similar to this boy who had sat there not too long ago and had told her very much the same thing, "You know, Matthews… Is it okay to call you that?" The young boy nodded, Kimball continuing after the nod, "There's a young man in the sanctuary too, about six years older than you tops. When he came here, he said exactly the same."

Her smile held a note of amusement as she add, "Funny thing is, his name happens to be Richard too."

Matthews's dark eyes lit up when he heard that, "Really?"

"Indeed. He sat here and said just about the same thing you did about the name, which is the reason why everyone calls him Simmons now." She thought of something just then, "Speaking of him, if you are okay with it I would like to call him into our meeting so that he can open up a guest-account for you. This is where we will keep your medical check-ups and training results."

While talking, she pressed a button to make Simmons' pager light up. It would just inform Simmons that he would have to come to her office.

The boy paled visibly at that, Kimball immediately giving him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, there are no goals you must reach. It's just something every guest here in the Sanctuary does regularly. It's only for me to see that you are doing well and have no illnesses which would need to be treated, and the training is just to see to what extent your abilities go and if there are any ways that you could possibly improve in utilizing or controlling them."

She quickly added for his benefit, "There's no pressure that you much improve or reach a specific goal. Just some tests to see how you do and for me to be able to check whether or not there is a task around here best suited for your specific abilities, okay?"

Matthews nodded shyly, looking at the leader of the Sanctuary with big eyes. She still smiled, her body giving away a calming aura. Again, there was silence.

"I… believe you." The boy muttered just then.

"Thank you, Matthews." The smile grew wider when she heard this from the young man in the chair before asking a question she had been curious about since this conversation had begun, "Now, why did you ask me for money earlier? Can you explain the whole story from your point of view beginning with your family?"

Again, silence settled on them as Matthews tried to remember exactly what had happened.

"Well, my family kicked me out about half a year ago. Not because I'm special, oh no, but because I'm gay. That I can do stuff others can't wasn't that much of a problem because I still look normal on the outside. As long as I kept my abilities in check, they didn't say something about them. But when I said I'm gay, they made me leave." The young man huffed out with anger, which was very much relatable when you were looking at things from his perspective.

"It's funny, they didn't get as angry when I told them that I have special abilities like a superhero. Maybe because they thought it was just some kind of phase I was having as I was growing up and they would fade away after time." He remembered, "But when I came out to my parents, thinking they would be just as tolerant about that as they had been with the abilities… They became furious. They hit me, called me names, and threw things at me. I had about five minutes to pack any necessary things like some spare clothes and my wallet and then I had to flee out of the house before they could kill me for real. Or try beating the 'gayness' out of me." The last words held so much hurt and venom against his parents that it made Kimball look at him with sympathy.

To have to go through something like that at his young age was defining. It was only understandable that he was so angry towards his parents who should love him the way he is. Instead they did something like that to him, something no child should ever endure. That it was his own parents doing that made a terrible situation that much more horrible.

His shoulders hunched again as his anger subdued, while he pulled up his knees, "After that, I managed to get places to sleep either in shelters or by asking people if I felt they were friendly." He tried explaining that last part a bit more, "It's like I just know that. I never really had an idea why that is and the internet doesn't give too much information on it although I didn't really often have the possibility to do look into it more. I was just trying to survive these last six months."

The door slowly opened, a redhead coming in, "Kimball? You called me?"

"Yes, please sit down, Simmons."

Looking over to the young man as he sat down, Matthews couldn't contain the curious question he had just then, "Your name's Richard too?"

The young redhead blinked at the remark, slightly taken aback by its forwardness before seeing Kimball's knowing smile.

A timid smile appeared on his features too when he replied, "That's right. Although I don't really like that name. I rather just go by Simmons." He could make an educated guess as to why his name had been brought up just then, "And I suppose it is better like that, because we now have two with this name, right? What's your full name anyways?"

"Richard Matthews. Although I prefer going by Matthews."

"Nice to meet you, Matthews." His smile became a bit surer following that, "As Kimball no doubt already mentioned, I'm going to open a guest account for you since I take it you're staying here?"

The young boy nodded. "I don't have a home anymore, so I would like to if that is okay with everyone."

"Of course, Matthews. I took you with me to give you the opportunity." Kimball replied.

Simmons took out his tablet, quickly taking a photo of the young man before sitting down on a chair beside Matthews and starting to type in information.

"Okay, Matthews, please continue."

"Where was I? Uhm… Well, during the day I asked random people if I felt they were okay for money to buy something to eat. Sometimes I worked, but I often got fired because I have two left hands."

Simmons winced nearby him. Kimball knew that Simmons had taken up some jobs while in high school to have the pocket money his dad denied. He had two left hands too in these jobs and would soon get fired as well.

"And, well, this went on for half a year until I met you this morning." Matthews concluded, looking sheepish again, "Although I still don't know how you knew I was special."

Simmons looked up, the same question written in his eyes. Kimball again smiled enigmatically, "Well, it was due to the way you approached me. You said you felt that I was a good person, which is why I have the suspicion you're something special. We call such people Abnormals."

Following this explanation, she asked, "Would you mind to explain the way your special ability shows itself again for my assistant?"

She pointed to Simmons just then, who turned bright red at the regard, "Simmons, I would like you to define what he is."

"But—" Simmons wanted to protest, but when he saw the knowing glance in Kimball's eyes he shut his mouth.

The leader of the Sanctuary already knew what Matthews' 'ability' was, but she wanted Simmons to define it. She wanted to test his knowledge and ability to determine the right species for himself.

The redhead nodded, "Okay, please, Matthews."

The young arrival shortly looked a bit confused from the still fondly smiling Kimball over to Simmons, who offered an awkward smile and a nod. He felt that he meant it to be a more encouraging gesture, but that Simmons was probably just as awkward around new people as he was.

"I saw you coming out from a house in the west end where I was living. I sensed that you had just managed to help someone special like me and that you felt relieved that he was okay and alive. No pride because of that, just happiness that you were able to help." He admitted, "This was the reason I decided to ask you for money. When I did so, you were at first startled, but then genuinely curious about my person."

He continued recollecting what had happened without stopping to debate events inwardly, "You asked me how I was doing and why I was living on the street. That was the first time someone had ever done that. Normally people would look at me with pity, give me some money and walk away as fast as possible like I'm contagious. However, when I explained my situation, you took me to a restaurant and told me that you would pay for anything I wanted to eat. While I was eating, you explained about the Sanctuary and everything." He nodded at that point, recalling further, "I never felt any twinge of the negative feelings I often notice with other people. You were just curious and genuinely wanted to help me."

Matthews shortly stopped, looking to Kimball to make sure he hadn't done something wrong. But she still was genuinely curious and happy about him being here. It made him smile timidly to see that.

"After that you invited me here, and I felt it was no empty offer and that you really meant it. That is why I'm here. If I hadn't felt that you were okay, I wouldn't have come with you."

After Matthews stopped explaining, he looked from Kimball to Simmons and back, waiting for someone to say something.

After some minutes, Kimball slightly turned her head, looking to Simmons, "So… What do you think, Simmons?"

The young man pondered over the information he had just been given before he carefully began to speak, "I would say he's an empath." He said at length, "Considering the things I've heard it's the only possibility."

Kimball smiled proudly at him. "You're a very attentive and clever young man. Well done. That's my conclusion too."

The redhead turned as red as his hair at the praise, sputtering something incoherent.

Matthews on the other hand was simply confused, "I'm a what?"

"You're an empath." Kimball repeated warmly, when her phone suddenly began to ring. Upon reading the message she had just received, she got up immediately, "I'm very sorry, but there's an emergency with an Abnormal in the city. Would you two mind finishing everything without me, Simmons?"

"Absolutely not." Simmons assured her, with Matthews nodding shyly afterwards.

"Thank you, Simmons." She nodded to the redhead who did the same in farewell, before turning her attention back to the newcomer in their midst, "I will see you later, Matthews."

When she was gone, Simmons sighed.

"Sorry about that, but sometimes she needs to make a fast leave when there are incidents involving Abnormals. She still insists on doing all the stuff herself." He looked lost in thought for a moment, "So, where were we? Ah yes!"

He snapped his fingers as the previous conversation came back to him, "As Kimball said, you're an empath. That means that you can feel the feelings of other people."

"Isn't that a telepath?" asked Matthews curiously, but also still a bit confused. He had moved the chair beside Simmons so that he could get a better look at the other man and watched how the redhead filed the information he had from Matthews into a form on his tablet.

Simmons shook his head. "No, a telepath can read or hear the thoughts of others. You feel their feelings. You see the difference?"

"I guess…?" Matthews wasn't sure and Simmons seemed to notice.

No, Matthews felt that Simmons knew that he wasn't sure. Simmons again shortly pondered over that before trying to approach things from a different angle.

"Look, a telepath can hear my thoughts. Like if I think 'This guy sucks!'. However, telepaths can get fooled by thoughts." He explained patiently, "You on the other hand can feel what I feel. Suppose I think that very same thought I mentioned before, but feel completely different for the person in question in reality. When I say I hate someone but my feelings say clearly that I like him instead. You get it?"

Immediately he pushed his thoughts about Grif into the farthest corner of his mind. Why had he felt the need to think of him anyway in this situation!? That was almost sadly hilarious.

This time Matthews nodded, "So telepaths can get fooled by thoughts?"

Simmons made a movement between a nod and a shake of his head, "Not exactly. Normally, humans can't control their thoughts, so telepaths can find out their true intentions very easily. But when you're around telepaths or are one yourself, you can train yourself to hide the thoughts you don't want others to read." He tapped the side of his chair thoughtfully, "This is when you can fool a telepath. But it's very difficult to do.

With feelings, it is even more challenging to do so. Sometimes you can persuade yourself that you feel differing feelings than you really do and empaths can get fooled too in those instances, but in general you can sense the true feeling underneath all denials and repressions when you're experienced enough or know what you are looking for."

Simmons chuckled nervously when Matthews didn't reply, "Did I overwhelm you with all of that information?"

The young boy immediately shook his head. "No absolutely not! I understood it pretty well. I think I get what you mean now. But uhm…" he paused, looking unsure, "Can I ask you some questions?"

"Of course."

Matthews felt genuine happiness from Simmons that he could share some of his knowledge with another person.

"You have a telepath living here?"

"Funnily enough, yes. His name is North Dakota." Simmons told him, "If you like, I can bring you to him when we're done with everything and he is back from the emergency call. He usually accompanies Kimball in those cases."

Matthews nodded, already anticipating the meeting.

"What do you mean by 'everything'?" Matthews again felt awkward as he remembered what Kimball and Simmons said before.

"First, I'll open up the account for you. That way you will have access to the internet, and Dr. Grey can fill in your information from the medical check-ups. Also, it will help us see how you do in training and how adept you are with using your abilities."

He thought of something else just, "But Kimball also insists on you going to school. Considering your age I guess you're in the last year of high school?"

Matthews nodded.

"Good. After that, you can go to college. She pays for your school, but you will have to work here a bit to help pay back the costs some. Or search for work outside the Sanctuary to help pay for your stay."

"Sounds clear to me."

Simmons smiled, "That's good to hear." He noted, thinking about what still needed to be done, "Next thing after the account is set up will be a short visit to see Dr. Grey. She's batshit crazy, but she's a good doc. She's a witch by the way, so don't freak out." Simmons winced at the memory of how he had freaked out when he had first found out about the doctor and going into lock-down-all-invisible mode for a week, "She will check how you're doing and see if you have some kind of illness or allergy we should be aware of. Afterwards, she will give you any vaccinations you're still missing to keep you healthy. Following the check-up, I'll show you the showers, your room, and introduce you to your new teammates. Okay?"

Matthews nodded. He didn't feel like introducing himself or going to a crazy doc in particular, but the faster they got things over with the better. And as long as Simmons was around, Matthews suspected it probably wouldn't be so scary.

"Can I ask you one last question before we start?" asked the young arrival timidly.

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"What is your ability?"

Simmons chuckled, before he simply vanished.

He fucking vanished!

Only his clothes were still there, looking like they're put on a glass doll or something.

Matthews felt that Simmons was around and rather amused about his reaction, but couldn't see him. Which made Matthews feel very nervous.

Breathing out (he hadn't even noticed that he had been holding his breath) when Simmons reappeared with a grin, he couldn't help but ask, "So you're like hollow man?"

"Not as crazy and mean as that guy but technically speaking, yes. The molecules of my body are sensitive to light. And I can willingly control them and turn invisible as you just witnessed."

"That's awesome! Are there others? What can they do? Something cool like you?" This little show seemed to have broken the ice between the two.

Simmons again chuckled, although Matthews felt that he was embarrassed because of Matthews praise for his ability, "How about we get everything over with first? The faster you're through, the faster you can go explore the Sanctuary and meet everyone in person and ask them yourself."

Matthews immediately hunched his shoulders, nodding timidly.

Simmons smiled, Matthews feeling his ease when he thought about the others, "Don't worry, they're not bad. Maybe a bit crazy, but not mean or dangerous. The dangerous and mean ones are in a safety compartment in another wing of the house that only myself, Carolina, and Kimball have access to." He quickly added to that in order to calm any potential worries about the last admission Matthews might have, "It's outbreak-safe by the way."

His smiled widened, "So, do you want to start?"

Matthews nodded, before they both looked to the tablet as Simmons began to fill in the information for the newest member of 'Team Chorus'.

"After that, she bit the owner of the restaurant, making him trip over one of the shoes another guest had lost and fall flat on his belly. Since he had hit one of the shelves before, a huge porcelain vase fell off of it and directly on the back of his head and knocked him out. It was crazy!"

It was lunchtime at the Sanctuary and the Red and Blue team, as well as Teams Freelancer and Chorus, were sitting at the table and listening to York's joyous explanations about the emergency they had some days ago when Matthews arrived there.

His hands flew around, causing North more than once to reduce York's entity-energy so that he wouldn't smack anyone upside the head because his hands were flying around to illustrate what had happened.

"Northy-boy," York earned another withering glare from North for this nickname, which he pointedly ignored, "Got bitten to. In his hand. Luckily for him it wasn't that hard and he 'only'," York framed the only by drawing apostrophes in the air, "Fell over a chair and now has a nice bump at the back of his head. Wash fell into the huge rain barrel standing beside the entrance of the restaurant because the luck-eater bit him too. As you know, cats and water don't get along very well. He clawed and hissed at the water like it's his worst enemy."

"It is my worst enemy." Stated Wash calmly, his ears again lying flat on his skull at the memory of his unwanted bath in the barrel.

"However." York continued, "Carolina somehow managed to avoid getting bitten. What can I say? She's lucky."

Carolina snorted at the wordplay of York, while he carried on, "Kimball also managed to not get bitten."

"You got bitten too, remember?" North pointedly looked towards a swollen part of York's lower left arm.

"How could I forget? The girl's bite is as vicious as a snake's. Luckily I managed to become a ghost before more happened!" York whined, again asking Carolina to nurse his injury.

She just rolled her eyes and replied that he was fine and shouldn't act like a baby.

"You got bitten, turned into a ghost and the moment you became human again one of the guys came flying through the room because the owner of the restaurant, a walrus-human-hybrid, threw this poor guy just before he had the collision with the vase." North's eyes sparkled with glee as he calmly explained what had happened.

York on the other hand tried to shut him up, without any real success as North simply turned him into a ghost, "Stop it, North! You're ruining my reputation!"

"What reputation?" Asked Sarge, the grumpy self-declared leader of Red Team.

The rest of the table broke into loud laughter, before everyone went quiet once again to listen to the rest of North's story, "Somehow, the guy came flying over and the back of his head collided with York's dick."

"Hey that fucking hurt! I still probably won't be able to jack off for a week!"

Again some of the guys at the table laughed, North continuing without missing a beat, "One of his knees hit him in the head too. Although I doubt it helped him to get any smarter."

There were again some people snickering at the table, York only pointing to the laceration in his left eyebrow with a sullen expression.

"How could something increase when there's nothing to begin with? Even in mathematics the result is zero when you try to multiply a sum with zero." This time it was Wash, making a snarky comment before taking a sip from his milk. He grinned and his eyes clearly showed amusement. His ears peeked up, indicating that he was attentive but feeling comfortable around them all.

"Hey! I am smart!"

"Uh-huh, you show your overwhelming cleverness every day." It was Carolina who took this opportunity to tease York.

"Aw, Lina! Come on! That's not fair! You know I'm smart!" York made a pouting face.

"Should I?" the phoenix lifted her left eye brow in a mocking manner.

"At least I knew what you wanted to tell me when you made this sign!" York copied the sign for sleeping she made some days ago after her rebirth.

"Yeah, that's true." Carolina replied solemnly, York beginning to beam in triumph at the admission.

"But when I tried to tell you that I was hungry," She copied the sign again where she put the tips of her right fingers together and pointed to her open mouth, making a back and forth movement, "You thought I wanted to kiss you instead of getting something to eat."

York's normally tan complexion turned even darker while the table broke into roaring laugher.

"I am guessing there's still a lot you two love birds would like to share, but it's time to finish lunch. Boys and girls, back to school! The rest of you, time to get back to your respective works inside and outside." Sarge's gruff Huckleberry-accented voice cut in, making it clear that he wouldn't tolerate any discussions about the time. It was already past lunch and everyone had tasks to do around the house.

Some of them, like Simmons, had online college or high school and after school some tasks in the house.

Others, like Grif, had work in town that they had gotten due to Kimball helping them to do so.

Grif, for example, was working at the lumberyard after dropping out of high school.

Donut would work at the municipal nursery, looking after the different plants of the whole city. Although he had to be extremely careful in order to not get too wet and turn into a merman in front of his coworkers.

Part of the money the people working outside the Sanctuary earned would go to Kimball as support to keep up the infrastructure.

She was rich, but that was beside the point: Kimball was of the opinion that you had to give something back to the Sanctuary if you wanted to live there.

Some did so by helping her, others by giving her part of their salary as a sort of rent for everything they needed while there.


	8. Chapter 8

Some weeks had passed since Matthews had arrived in the Sanctuary.

Luckily, summer was about to end, which meant that a new school year had just started. He would be one year delayed, but he would be able to finish high school and after that go on to college.

That he was about a year older than the rest of his fellow students didn't bother the young empath for once. He was even happy to go to class instead of having to stay at the Sanctuary like Simmons did.

Matthews had always wanted to become a psychologist. Thanks to his abilities, he would be able to feel what people were feeling and perhaps be better suited to help them even. He just had to find a way to cover up his empathic abilities with some well thought-out and plausible explanations his patients wouldn't question too much. Well, that could work out.

For now though, he sat under the oak tree and tried to figure out the mathematics homework he still had to do.

Mathematics wasn't his strong suit, so he was struggling quite a bit with the task.

Sighing, he gave up another attempt and rolled his shoulders.

Maybe he should ask Simmons for advice? He was known to be a mathematics and IT-crack along with the other knowledge he was acquiring from school.

No, he decided, he was sure that Simmons probably had other things to do just then.

Every new member of Chorus had received a mentor from the Reds and Blues to help them through the days until they would find their way around the Sanctuary themselves.

He, for example, got Donut. A guy named Bitters (he hadn't really seen him yet) got the wolven Grif, Palomo was assigned the Incubus Tucker, Andersmith got Caboose, and Jensen got Simmons.

It was unfair, really. Why did Jensen get Simmons as mentor when he couldn't even talk to girls without turning invisible?

Sighing heavily, Matthews stared at his homework.

Secretly, he hoped that the numbers would somehow magically start to make sense in his brain just by staring at them long enough.

Even Andersmith had it better than Matthews, who still was struggling with his homework.

He had come here just after his wife died. She had been an Abnormal, a telekinetic, while Andersmith was completely Normal.

However, when she died he had come here asking Kimball if he could stay on to help her.

His wife always used to talk about the Sanctuary, which made Andersmith want to go there after her death to honor her work she had done for the Abnormals outside in the city. She often used to send Abnormals to the Sanctuary or help them as best she could by bringing food, blankets, clothes, and other things to any Abnormals living on the street.

After hearing the story, Kimball had agreed to take up Andersmith on his offer: making him one of the representatives of the Sanctuary when it came to dealing with any and all journalists. Carolina was also good at that, but often had more pressing matters to attend to than dealing with noisy and annoying journalists.

Aside from that assigned task, Andersmith was also responsible for looking after the kids when they were in the Sanctuary.

He would take care of them as long as their parents were working or otherwise absent, or they simply just needed a moment off. Or in those instances when there were no parents with the children who were living there. They did not have any cases like that right now, but it sometimes happened in the past that a youngster came to the Sanctuary without parents as either the child had run away or the parents had somehow lost the child or even their lives at some point before the kid had arrived at the place. Children also included his own mentor, Caboose.

Leaning against the trunk of the tree, the young Empath sighed again.

There was a low rustling in the leaves, making Matthews look up. It wasn't anything new that he would talk to the tree.

He always felt like this pal here would understand his worries and thoughts. It was an idiotic notion at best, he knew that himself, but strangely enough… Every so often he swore he felt feelings coming from the tree.

Sometimes it was slight annoyance when he told the tree some of his moronic worries. Like the tree wanted to tell him that he should stop worrying about that kind of shit.

Or genuine curiosity when he would talk about his past.

The times when he felt nothing but calming vibes from the oak was whenever Matthews was about to panic about a bad mark (which wasn't really bad but he just was something of an overachiever and considered even sufficient to good marks as being not enough for his standards).

Closing his eyes, he felt the sun shining through the leaves and warming his face.

"You know," the young empath began, "I often used to sit in the backyard of the house where I grew up. Back when everything was okay and my parents didn't even know about my ability."

Again, there were curious feelings coming from the tree at this vein of talk which made Matthews smile. Inquisitive fellow.

"After doing homework, I often sat under a tree. It was really similar to you, just enjoying the sun. I was happy to sit there too and feel the sun warm my skin." He opened his eyes, blinking twice before closing them again to enjoy the warmth, "I almost forgot how it felt to sit under a tree and just enjoy the moment."

After some more moments, Matthews sighed contentedly before asking the tree, "Would you mind if I hung a swing on one of your branches so I could sit there from time to time?

"Don't you fucking dare!"

Jumping almost a meter high in the air, Matthews let loose a high pitched scream and scrambled away from the tree as fast as he could. His breath was fast and shallow and his eyes were wide from fear, making his eyeballs almost pop out of their sockets.

He knew that there were lots of crazy things going on in this world, but he had never heard of fucking talking trees! What the fuck was that tree!? Some kind of Abnormal that Kimball had saved from extinction?

Just when he thought he was about to die of a heart attack, he saw the tree shift slightly. The sight made his heart pick up to an even more unhealthy speed of beating.

When the tree was done shifting, a young man appeared from the back of the tree.

And that was more than enough of a shock to almost have a third heart attack.

"You okay there?" the young man seemed rather perturbed when he looked over, eyeing the young Empath sitting in the dirt with something like annoyed curiosity.

The new arrival had dark olive skin, just like the wood of an olive branch. His hair was a fair brown, green leaves embedded in his short hair. He had vividly shining blue eyes, like the color of a little streamlet in the middle of a forest.

"Hello, Earth to dude… you okay?"

Obviously, the guy had tried to gain his attention for several seconds now. He was crouched in front of Matthews, waving a hand up and down in front of his face.

He blinked at the proximity, "Uh… yeah, I'm sorry. What did you say?"

The young guy scoffed, rolling his eyes in aggravation. A familiar feeling of annoyance washed over Matthews.

"I was asking why you jumped almost a meter high when I decided to join the party down here."

"Because I didn't know you were here in the first place?" retorted Matthews with an incredulous squeal in his voice.

The dark skinned young man blinked, confused, "Dude, I was here the whole time you were around. I live in this fucking tree."

"What… you were around all the time? Living here? What the fuck?" Matthews's voice raised in pitch as he began to panic even more at that revelation.

"Whoa, calm down." The guy seemed to notice that the empath was about to snap.

"Calm down!? I just saw you coming out of the fucking tree!"

The guy huffed. "That's because I'm a Dryad, dumbass. My kind lives in trees."

"You are… what?"

This time the guy rolled his eyes. "I'm a Dryad. We're nymphs, living in the forest. Normal wood nymphs are responsible for every floral life in the forest. Dryads are looking after trees in particular, mostly oak trees. There are hamadryads too, bonding with one particular tree and dying when the tree dies and shit. Got it?"

"I… guess?" replied Matthews a bit reluctant, still struggling with the new information he had just received.

"So, now it's my turn to ask a question." The guy said, glancing at him curiously, "What's your name?"

"Matthews. Yours?"

"What a fucked up name for a guy." He scoffed before jabbing a finger at his own chest, "Mine's Antoine Bitters. Never call me by my first name, unless you have a very strong death wish. Only Bitters." His voice made it clear that he wouldn't allow someone to call him by his birth name.

"That's not a fucked up name because it's only my family name!" Matthews shot back, flaring up from the blatant remark of the Dryad-guy called Bitters and quickly adding, "My full name is Richard Matthews. But I prefer getting called Matthews. I hate my first name."

There was a short silence in which the two guys eyed each other.

Just when Matthews thought they would stay there until midnight, the young Dryad slowly got up, extending a hand to him.

"Come on, get up and sit under the oak." He laughed when he saw Matthews eyeing the tree suspiciously, "Don't worry, he won't hit or kill you. He couldn't even if I wanted to."

"He?" Matthews took Bitters' offered hand to get up, before sitting down at the place he had been sitting at before and leaning against the trunk again.

Bitters nodded, making an approving sound, "Normally you refer to the tree in the same way you do the Dryad looking after it. So in my case, it would be a male. If I were a girl the tree would be female too. It's some kind of thing all creatures living in a wood with Dryads do."

"I see." Muttered Matthews, looking up to observe the leaves of the tree.

"What you said about your first name. I assume you don't like it because of what your parents did to you?" Bitters ended the sudden silence lingering there again with another question.

He stared at the wall on the opposite side of where they were sitting, avoiding looking at Matthews when asking such a delicate question.

Matthews blinked. Again he felt the same feelings he every so often would get from the tree when he talked to him. This sense of curiosity, covered up with faked annoyance.

The young empath nodded, "Yes, I didn't really like my name even when I still was living there with my parents, but since they made me leave it has turned into a full-fledged aversion."

Bitters only nodded, not really commenting on that. Matthews didn't know if he could understand his situation or not, but he seemed smart enough to not press the subject.

"So um, every time I thought that the tree was annoyed or curious… I was actually sensing your feelings?"

This time it was the Dryad's turn to blink before looking at the young man beside him with a dumbfounded expression, "What?"

"Oh, I guess you didn't know." Matthews hurried to explain, "I'm an empath. I feel the feelings of others. Whenever I sat under the tree here, I could always feel annoyance, curiosity, and other feelings. I always thought it was the tree, but now I am thinking those were actually your emotions."

Bitters scratched the back of his head, "Uh yeah, sorry about that. I really didn't want you thinking I was spying on you or anything, but I didn't want to interrupt you either so long as you were just talking. I always thought that maybe you just needed a quiet listener who you could get rid of some of your emotional garbage and shit with." The Dryad explained, leaning back against the trunk of his tree, "People often used to come by in the forest I lived in before to tell their stories to the trees. I used to hide there too as most of the people don't know about Abnormals and would only would freak out whenever they saw one."

Matthews nodded solemnly, following Bitters' glance to one of the branches. There sat a little bird, singing a song for the tree and the two young men sitting in its shade.

"What had it been like?"

Bitters blinked, confused by the question, "What?"

"Your old home, dummy." Matthews grinned slightly when he heard the young man beside him scoff.

However, there came no snarky remark to that—just another silence. Matthews was about to say that he was sorry and didn't mean to pry when the Dryad began to talk.

"It was wonderful. A little forest somewhere in the backlands of Minnesota. It wasn't one of the biggest forests, but big enough to foster a variety of animals. Actually, it was one of the last forests Abnormals lived in without Normals prying in." explained Bitters, a pained expression crossing his face.

Matthews could feel the pain he felt when thinking about it, but the Dryad continued nonetheless.

"There were deer, rabbits, birds… all this shit you know from fairy tales living in there. You've already met Palomo, the Faunus?" Matthews nodded shortly and Bitters continued without missing a beat, "He was living with us. His family and about five others. There were also about two other Dryad-tribes in the forest beside the one I belonged to. Some flying Abnormals and also some others living on the ground or in the water lived there. Even some mermaids and mermen."

"But something happened." Matthews stated simply when Bitters didn't continue.

There was a pained expression flashing over the Dryad's face once more. Matthews felt the heart wrenching pain in his insides like it was his own.

"Some assholes cleared the forest, killing everything they didn't want that was in their way. The ones they wanted, us Abnormals, were herded up and stuffed into little cages. The drive went on for hours, some of the older and injured Abnormals dying on the way. Those who made it, we were kept in a warehouse… getting sold and resold after that." He recalled.

"The only reason Palomo and I were together was because they sold us as some kind of set. Like it was cheaper to buy both of us instead of one. One for the trees and one for the lawn or some shit like that." Those last words were full of bitterness and anger towards the men who had done that to them.

Bitters stopped talking, obviously not in the mood to continue further (and there was no need to besides, as they had been saved soon afterwards).

Matthews also lapsed into silence, pondering what he had just been told. The young man had been forced to go through the same thing he had: losing his home. Although Bitters' fate seemed to be by far worse than his.

"Wow, looks like we both have had shitty pasts." Matthews muttered after minutes of both not saying a word, just sitting underneath the tree and listening to the rustling of the leaves overhead.

"Pretty much." The Dryad exhaled loudly, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

For the first time since Bitters rather scary appearance, Matthews took his time to really study the young Dryad sitting beside him.

He had already noticed pretty much about Bitters complexion and his features. His body had the same color like his face, looking a bit chubby, but Matthews hat the intention that the Dryad was stronger than he looked.

He was still wearing the sweater and the shirt as Kimball insisted on everyone wearing his unique color. Underneath the shirt, Matthews had the intention of seeing leaves, forming something akin to clothes to cover the most delicate places.

Of course, Bitters wouldn't have had clothes back then when he had been living in the forest.

As of his explanations, the forest hadn't been under the influence of people from outside, which meant that they wouldn't have had something like clothes or other stuff.

"Do I have something in my face?", asked the Dryad, opening an eye and mustering the young empath sitting beside him, "Or do I appeal to you?"

"I- What?" Stuttered the empath, feeling a blush creeping up his face.

"I asked if I appeal to you."

"No!" exclaimed the empath almost panicking.

Bitters grin widened. "And why do you blush like crazy?"

"I don't blush!" the heat on Matthews face only got more intense.

"Uh-hu, sure." Bitters reply was dripping with sarcasm, "And why do you have such a red face then?"

"I don't have a red face!" insisted the young empath, feeling Bitters amusement and childish proud about Matthews reaction like his own.

"Noooo, absolutely not. You just could out-redden a tomato." The sarcasm in the Dryads voice was palpable by now.

Matthews knew he was gay and Bitters appealed to him. He had the looks and something about his character made the empath like him on spot. Although he would more have liked to strangle him right now.

The blond male huffed, crossing his arms, again muttering that he wasn't blushing. Bitters however kept his teasing grin. He sat there, grinning like a dork.

After minutes, when Matthews couldn't stand Bitters joyous smirk and feelings anymore, he got up and left the tree with a muttered good-bye and the information that he was tired.

When he walked away, he couldn't tell if the feeling of disappointment, insecurity and hurt were his own or not. If he would have turned around, he could have seen a confused Bitters sitting there, eyes full of hurt, silently asking himself what he did wrong that his only company beside the annoying-as-fuck Palomo was making such a fast leave.


	9. Chapter 9

More than one and a half years had passed since Wash's arrival.

The blond male had soon fallen into a daily routine with the other inhabitants of the Sanctuary, getting used to their antics and their daily skirmishes with each other: such as the Grif siblings hunting him or Church down.

Church had the advantage of turning into a bat to scare the older sibling away while Wash did not. Fortunately, for him though, Grif was rather obedient to Simmons' commands and Wash often used to that in order to get away from one of the wolven instead of having both chasing him.

He had once scratched Kai and gave her a bloody nose, which meant that she hated his guts even more. She was always suspecting him to secretly be a cop and trying to throw every inhabitant of the Sanctuary into jail following that.

Whatever, probably best not to dwell on that anymore.

After the first week, Wash had stopped trying to persuade Kai differently. Even her brother would only sigh or groan while shaking his head with a forlorn expression when she kept bringing it up.

Wash just had gotten home from his job outside the Sanctuary as a cycle courier. It had been easy for the werecat to accept this job as he would always be wearing a helmet or a beanie to hide his ears as well as for protection, all while being able to conceal his tail under his hoodie.

Nobody noticed that he was at all different from other people.

And besides, he was having a nice workout to help him stay in shape while working too.

After having a shower and dinner, he went over to Tucker's.

Soon after Wash had arrived at the Sanctuary, the two of them had fallen into the habit that the person coming home later would check on the other.

Whenever Tucker had his early shift in the restaurant bar he was working at, it would be Wash checking up on him.

Whenever Tucker had his late shift, he would check in on Wash: mostly finding him asleep in either his or Tucker's room.

At some time during this point, Junior would insist on Wash putting him to bed if Tucker wasn't around to do so. After Tucker had asked him to do that favor for him once, Wash had promised to do it whenever he was home in time. If he couldn't, Andersmith would take over the task.

However, Wash would always shortly check on Junior when he came home in those cases.

This week, however, was a big exception to that.

Since the Wednesday of last week, Junior had been lying in bed with a high fever—obviously having caught some kind of a flu.

When Tucker was working, Andersmith would look after the young Shapeshifter. Whenever Tucker was around, he would insist on taking care of his son himself. He had once explained it as being part of his fatherly responsibilities and all that shit.

Since yesterday, it looked like Junior was finally getting better. His appetite had come back, making him whine about being hungry all the time. He also wasn't puking as often anymore.

Thirdly, the color had come back to his face too, which made him look much healthier than he had in the days before. During the last days of being sick with the flu, his face had looked ashen. Now it again had the same dark chocolate color as his father's.

Knocking quickly, Wash peered into Tucker's private room and saw that it was pitch black in there. The absence of light didn't pose a problem for Wash as he could see well in the dark.

Tucker was lying in his bed, obviously sleeping.

Letting him be, the werecat went through the connecting door to Junior's room to see the young changeling merrily playing with his toys.

"Hey, Junior. Shouldn't you be in your bed?" asked Wash after he carefully closed the door and walked over to the young boy.

"Hey, Wash!" the young boy greeted the werecat happily, a large smile appearing on his features when he explained, "I couldn't sleep anymore so I decided to play with my toys."

"But you're sick, so you should be resting still. Sleep helps you get better quicker." Wash tried explaining, making a notion with his head towards the bed, "Now it's time to sleep. It's already past nine."

"I'm not sick anymore!" insisted Junior, a pout appearing on his lips.

Wash shrugged, crouching down in front of the changeling. "Okay, but if you're feeling well again then you can also go to school."

There was a long silence following that with Junior and Wash eyeing the other in an attempt to assess how sincere the other person was with what he just said.

Some moments went by before Junior put the toy away, standing up and toddling over to the bed. "I better go to sleep now then since I'm still feeling sort-of sick."

"Thought so." Wash muttered under his breath, walking over to the bed and giving Junior a good-night kiss on his forehead.

Wash noticed that the fever had lessened slightly, but hadn't yet broken completely. Junior would still need some days to recover completely.

Before he left, he remembered that there was something he wanted to ask the boy.

"Hey, Junior, do you know why your dad is already sleeping?"

The young changeling contemplated the question before answering.

"He said something about having gotten the flu from me. He has a nasty cough." He explained, shrugging under his covers.

"But that's pretty much impossible since I still have it. I wouldn't give him something like that." Junior wrinkled his nose, and his very literal interpretation of what his father had said caused Wash to laugh silently.

"Yeah, sure. Only in this case you can't really decide if you give the little bugs making you sick to someone else or not."

"There are bugs in me!?" Junior's face again became a sickly white color, while the boy himself looked like he might be throwing up in the next seconds as the idea became more pronounced in his head.

Wash hurried to explain the situation to avoid that.

"No! Not that kind of bugs!" Wash frantically waved his hands in front of him, hoping that Junior wouldn't throw up if he was distracted and focusing on him instead, "Technically speaking, those are bacteria or viruses in your body making you sick. But often younger kids," Junior again wrinkled his nose distastefully at being described as such which made Wash quickly alter his explanation a bit, "Kids younger than you, cannot understand what those terms mean. Which is why adults explain it like that."

Wash again put up a smile when he saw that Junior's facial color turned back to normal and he relaxed visibly at his impromptu save, "I will keep in mind for next time that you are already way more grown up and I won't use any stupid baby-talk again, okay?"

"Uh-huh." Junior nodded, still almost looking a bit offended that Wash had even seemed to consider using baby-talk anywhere near him, before saying his good night.

Wash turned off the light and closed the door to Junior's room, pondering about Tucker's state of health as he did so.

Given Junior's explanation, Wash assumed that the Incubus had gotten the flu from his son and was now sick too.

Luckily, Wash's boss just had forced him to take a week's leave as he apparently had too many holidays he hadn't used yet

What could he say about that, really? He loved his work, so he hardly even thought about taking any leaves.

Wash sighed while walking over to Tucker's bed in the darkness. It looked like he would be looking after Tucker during his forced holidays.

Different work but still work, huh?

Sitting down on the bed beside Tucker just as he had done with Tucker's son minutes ago, he could hear the shallow and unsound breathing coming from the other man. It sounded horrible.

The little movement, however, seemed to have started waking up the dark skinned man.

He turned around half-asleep still, muttering with a croaked voice, "Go back to bed, Junior. You're not fully recovered and I feel like shit."

Wash couldn't hide the grin forming on his face, "Junior's sleeping because I said he could go to school tomorrow if he already feels that well." He informed him, "Besides, it's pretty obvious that you feel like shit."

Tucker frowned, obviously having problems still processing who was talking to him and what they had just said. He sleepily blinked his eyes open.

"Wash?" his voice was nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

"Yeah, I just got home and decided to check on you." Wash explained, shifting a bit on the side of the bed so that Tucker could sit up, "But as I see it, you don't look too well."

Before Tucker could say anything in reply, he had such a horrible coughing fit that even Wash winced sympathetically. It sounded so awfully congested and painful that it hurt Wash only by listening to it.

"Did you already eat or drink something?" Wash asked, making the sick Incubus lie back on his bed.

He only shook his head. It looked like Tucker had decided that it was better to keep his trap shut instead of forcing his already strained voice to say anything.

"Okay, you wait here. I'll get you something."

"I don't have a date so I guess I could do that." Tucker answered cheekily to Wash's demand.

What was that about being smart and keeping his trap shut for once?

Sighing again, Wash got up and went to the canteen to get chicken bouillon and some tea for Tucker. He also shortly informed Grey and Kimball about Tucker's physical state, asking Grey to come over to check on him the next day.

She was just busy dissecting something and Wash didn't really want to know what that had once been. And he could only hope that the thing, whatever it was, was actually dead already.

Kimball wished for Tucker to get well soon, before she again turned her attention to the paperwork on her desk.

Following that, Wash returned to the room and saw Tucker lying in the very same place he had left him. He already seemed to be asleep again.

Although the werecat would have loved to let the Incubus sleep, he had to wake him up for the bouillon.

"Just five more minutes, honey…" muttered Tucker into his pillow, pulling up the blanket.

"Nope, no 'more five minutes, honey.' Your dinner is waiting." Wash decided to make a little fun of the sick Incubus.

"If my dinner doesn't consist of hot chicks, I don't care."

"Actually, it does." Wash couldn't stifle his laughter when Tucker shot into an upright position, looking around frantically.

"Chicks? Where are they?"

"In here." Wash stated matter-of-factly, pointing to the soup on the tray.

When Tucker realized that Wash had fooled him and used wordplay to get him to wake up, he pouted, "Aw, man, that isn't fair!"

Wash now knew where Junior had gotten his best pouting face from.

"Well, you're sick and I have to get you eat something. Now, here. Eat." Wash placed the tray in Tucker's lap and waited for him to begin.

"Sex also helps to get rid of the flu, you know. The hotter the chick, the faster you get well." Tucker informed him, reluctantly taking up the spoon to start eating.

"Uh-huh, except then the other person gets the flu too. Very helpful." Wash deadpanned, shaking his head when Tucker looked as if he wanted to reply, "Ah-ah. Eat now. Talk later."

The Incubus did indeed slowly begin to eat after Wash's statement. It was understandable that he wasn't that hungry and probably wouldn't be able to eat all of the soup while he was sick.

Wash would eat the rest. He still had lot of space in his stomach for a chicken soup after dinner. Besides, when he went back to work later he would have lots of time to cycle away any of the pounds he could potentially gain during his holidays.

"Shouldn't you be keeping away from me then? You know, with the whole getting infected by sex thing?" Tucker asked suddenly, as he was nursing his tea.

His voice already sounded a lot better, although Wash almost had to force the tea down his throat because he didn't like tea. Wash recalled that Tucker's exact words on the subject had been "Tea is for old ladies and people lying in the hospital!" when they had talked last week about what to do when Junior first became sick and Wash had suggested to give him tea.

The werecat laid one ear down so that it was pointing towards the side, while the other still perked up, "As long as we don't have sex…it's a moot point."

"So you're saying that we could totally bang when I'm well again?"

"Yeah… Wait, what!? No, I didn't say that!" spluttered Wash, a blush creeping up from his shoulders all the way to his face.

"You didn't decline either." Tucker replied with a wolfish grin.

There was a moment where Wash simply spluttered incoherently before clearing his throat audibly.

Tucker winced at the loud sound.

"Besides, why would I keep away from you?" Wash asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

Tucker was sometimes unbelievable. However, the fever didn't seem high enough to make him hallucinate.

Or maybe… He was actually hallucinating.

Wash couldn't say for sure either way at this moment.

"Because I'm sick and shit?" Tucker replied, with a disbelieving tone in his cracking voice like he was having trouble processing just what a fool Wash was being currently since the werecat didn't seem to be able to understand what Tucker had been trying to say.

Wash blinked several times, dumbfounded, before answering, "Werecats have a very good immune system which means that we hardly ever get sick. So I am not too worried about getting sick just by being around you."

"Ah…" Tucker muttered, lying back on the bed.

Before he even had time to lay down properly, he had another coughing fit. Wash handed him the tea when he finally managed to stop hacking up his lungs.

The Incubus looked miserable.

His eyes looked somewhat dull and his face was covered with sweat. His facial color looked as ashen as Junior's had been some days ago. Besides that, his hair looked as dull as his eyes and his movements were altogether slow and weak. He still seemed to have a loose tongue when it came to innuendos, but they were lacking the usual energy Tucker seemed to normally radiate whenever he was awake.

Although Tucker looked like shit, he stubbornly refused the cooling towel on his forehead, "I'm not that sick, dude."

"You're more than sick enough for a wet towel to help reduce the fever."

"Nope, not gonna happen." Tucker made his point clear by turning over on his belly and burying his face in his pillow.

Wash sighed again, "You have such a thickhead."

"Bow chicka bow wow!" Tucker muttered into his pillow.

"THICKhead not DICKhead, you idiot." Although Wash hurried to correct himself, he couldn't prevent Tucker from grinning into the pillow.

After some minutes and another coughing fit, Tucker decided that it was much more comfortable lying on his back and turned around again.

Wash was there to hand him the glass with tea to make Tucker drink. Drinking a lot of tea helped the body to get rid of the flu it was battling.

Wash carefully took the half-empty glass with tea out of Tucker's hands when he began to drop off and put it down on his nightstand, just in case he might be thirsty during the night.

He retrieved his sweatpants and hoodie from his own room following that, before going back to Tucker's room.

There he slipped out of his clothes, changed into his cat-form and rolled up into a furry ball right beside Tucker's left calf muscle for sleeping.

He preferred sticking around in case Tucker needed him. Just in case.

He never had been that ill himself, therefore he couldn't say if this cough and flu were normal or not. Wash could only hope that it was normal and nothing even more serious.

Some days later, Wash woke up to another coughing fit of Tucker's. One moment he was sleeping soundly and the next he almost fell off the bed because of the Incubus' droning coughing.

Junior had already left his room for school, Wash not really bothering to get up as he had heard Andersmith getting the young changeling up.

Wash's holidays were about to end and Tucker didn't seem to be doing any better.

Although Grey had said that he had a normal flu, Wash was growing worried. This coughing wasn't normal, he was sure of that.

Maybe he should get Grey to check on Tucker and this horrible coughing again.

It sounded like he would hack up his lungs in the very next second!

Sitting on the bed with his ears lying pressed against his skull, he had a worried glint in his eyes as he continued to observe the Incubus coughing like he really wanted to spit out his lungs.

Tucker's coughing fit subdued almost a full minute later. Wash got up, slipped into his clothes, and hurried out of Tucker's room to get Grey.

It was time for her to check on the Incubus again. There really must be something up if he was coughing this horribly still!

Wandering through the halls, he could see that most of the Sanctuary's inhabitants had left already, going either to work or school.

Anyone else still around in the house were probably either helping or having online school.

Slipping into Grey's office, he made her come with him to check on Tucker again.

Just when they came in, Tucker had such a horrible coughing fit that he almost passed out from lack of oxygen.

Wash was oddly relieved about this in a way, as that was a rather good example of Tucker really having a horrible cough to help showcase that Wash wasn't just exaggerating his symptoms.

Grey decided to really check him over again, before shortly leaving and coming back with some kind of medicine.

"He's fine. Just a little bronchitis in addition to the flu. But nothing really worrisome." She assured him.

For Wash, however, this was rather unsettling news! His ears showed clearly that he wasn't exactly on the same page with Grey about her assessment.

"He will be coughing for some more days before it gets better. However, this here should lessen the fever and help the body in getting rid of both the flu and the bronchitis. All he needs is rest and someone looking after him as lovingly as you do. Maybe some cuddling would help too!" she explained merrily, already packing up again and leaving with a short wave.

Wash couldn't hide the little blush creeping up his neck when he heard that.

Luckily, Grey had already left in a flurry and didn't see it.

And Tucker was out cold again, therefore also not noticing the slightly embarrassed and lost look crossing over the werecat's face.


	10. Chapter 10

A strange sound woke Simmons up in the middle of the night.

It was a rumbling sound combined with an even higher, whiny-pitched sound. The kind of sound you would hear in movies set in ancient time when they would drag old wooden carts over rough cobblestone. The wood and the metal would often make a horrible whining sound in those types of films from the weight it had to carry.

This noise often sounded worse than fingernails being dragged over a slate.

There it was again—that odd sound!

Additionally something nudged his left arm, trying to get his attention. This _something_ was warm, wet, and somewhat gross.

He imagined this whining cart that had just been pulled out of the nearest lake had started somehow nudging his arm.

Although his sleep-muddled sense of logic told him that whole mental picture he was thinking was absolute fucking bullshit.

"Nnnh, fuck off." Simmons muttered, turning around and hiding deeper under the blanket.

There was a short pause, but that was soon broken by the same whine he had heard before. The nudging started up again soon after.

This fucking "cart" really was getting annoying.

Or, rather, _whatever_ this was.

He had woken up enough by this point to know that he had dreamed up absolute bullshit in his sleep-addled brain before. Seriously, a _cart_!?

He opened his bleary eyes, only to quickly close them again with an annoyed groan.

The very second he had opened his eyes, he had found himself look directly into a flash of lightning. It was still far away considering the time it took for the thunder to reach his ears, but the fucking bolt still had been bright enough to blind him temporarily.

Rubbing his eyes with an agitated grumble, he again heard the rumbling of thunder and the whining picked up once more.

Now that he had woken up enough, he could define this strange sound and the dawning realization of what it was exactly was more than enough to make him groan again.

"Grif, _seriously_?"

Said person, or in this case wolven, nudged his left arm again.

Simmons fought his way out of his blanket, "You're a grown-ass wolven and you still almost piss yourself because of a fucking thunderstorm?"

Oh, had he ever mentioned that he could get pretty cranky when he was woken up in the middle of the night?

Simmons only got another whine as reply.

Looking down at the wolven, he could see that he really was anxious. He had his tail between his rear legs and was cowering as low as possible until his chest almost touched the ground while his head was hanging low. His ears laid flatly on his skull and his eyes were wide with fear.

Simmons knew that Grif was really fucking afraid of thunderstorms. Something about once getting lost when he still was a pup and couldn't change into his human form. He had been forced to wander around the whole night in the forest searching for his way back home. Due to the rain, his mom's tracks had washed away very quickly.

Well, that is what happens when someone that young thinks he can stop for a snack without telling anyone.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Simmons muttered, slowly getting up and looking around for some sweaters or a shirt.

During the summertime, he would always sleep only in his boxer shorts. Although it was only April, it was already fucking warm for this early in the year. Simmons wouldn't be surprised if it would rain for the rest of the year.

Well, at the very least he wouldn't need to have a bad conscience later on while he was sitting in the library all day and learning. He already learned pretty much every day besides.

Classes were over, allowing the students to take their sweet time to learn and prepare their essays in order to master their studies.

Simmons had already received Kimball's okay and had signed up to study Teratology as a third subject.

"You know the rules," the young redhead grumbled, staggering over to the door after putting on his clothes, " _No_ exceptions."

With those words, he was out the door and on his way to Grif's bedroom.

He searched for some halfway clean clothes in Grif's mess. Seriously, how could the guy not drown in his shit? It looked like Simmons would once again have to clean up Grif's stuff when he was at work.

When he found something passably clean, Simmons grabbed Grif's pillow and his bed covers before returning to his own room.

When he came back, he could see Grif still sitting there, trying to make himself as small as possible.

He looked like the biggest dork doing that. A huge wolven trying to appear smaller than a Chihuahua, really?

Putting the covers down, Simmons shortly went over to his closet to get out an old and worn mattress.

It had been the old one for his own bed. When he had arrived at the Sanctuary, Kimball decided he would get a new one but before she could throw away the old mattress, Simmons had asked her to let him keep the thing.

He hadn't known why back then. Now he did.

He would have spent more nights on the uncomfortable parquet floor than in his bed because Grif happened to be a whiny bitch more than not, often searching for any idiotic excuse to come over and pester Simmons.

Simmons already knew that the Hawaiian would turn into his wolven form when he was afraid or angry. As a wolven, he was stronger and faster than as a human. When his instincts kick in, he changes to this form to have the better parameters that came with it whenever it came down to a fight.

Simmons snorted lowly when he dragged the mattress beside his bed at that recollection.

As if Grif could fight a thunderstorm.

However, those same fucking instincts caused him to be stuck in that form and always sneaking over to where Simmons was. The normally oh-so-lazy fat-ass could whine for hours if it was necessary, just to wake Simmons up.

Usually he wouldn't put that much effort into something so unnecessary.

Although the redhead still had some trouble understanding just _why_ the wolven preferred coming over to Simmons rather than staying in his own room as he could hear more of the storm when staying with the redhead in his room.

Whatever. Simmons had given up questioning many of Grif's actions a long time ago.

Putting down Grif's stuff on the sideboard beside the mattress, the redhead called out for the wolven.

Carefully, a big head with shining amber eyes appeared around the corner of his bed. His ears still laid flat on his skull, his head hanging low and his eyes full of fear.

Although Grif's body language practically screamed _"Fear!"_ currently, Simmons would have had a screaming fit combined with a heart attack from fear himself if he didn't already know from seeing this image before so often that this was Grif.

Though it was dark in his room, Grif's head stood out with an even darker shade of black while his eyes gleamed as if they had their own personal light behind them. Which only served to scare the shit out of people who saw him in this state usually.

Simmons thought that maybe that could also be from the sun or another light shining through his empty skull.

He shook off this thought as quickly as it came, though: Grif was _really_ afraid, not like his pseudo phobia of bats he more often than not forgot about whenever he was chasing Church throughout the house.

This was really not the place or time to be making fun of his situation.

"Come on, you big baby, time to hit the hay." Simmons ordered, sitting down on the edge of his bed with his feet dangling down towards the side where he had placed the mattress.

He would always put down the mattress beside his bed and the sideboard, on the averted side of the window.

It would still get bright and loud during storms, but Simmons noticed that doing that at least seemed to help Grif. Knowing that there was someone between him and the storm outside had a slight calming effect if nothing else.

Although Simmons truly doubted he could do anything about the weather. He was pretty sure that he would fly away like a leaf if a strong gust of wind would come up.

The wolven snuck around the corner in the very second another lightning shone through the window with the loudest thunder Simmons had ever heard crashing down a second or so later.

Simmons and Grif both jumped at the loud crashing, Grif letting loose a blend between a whine and a howl. The sound made Simmons shudder as Grif practically dove into the mattress.

Of course, such a loud noise would hurt Grif's sensitive ears.

Simmons however, didn't have time to elaborate on that thought further as soon after the thunder an alarm in the building began to howl as well. Something was up.

The redhead dashed out of his room towards the nearest computer panel because, _of course, he had forgotten his fucking tablet in the laboratory today!_

Grif was hot on his heels with his tail between his rear legs and his ears still flat on his skull.

If it hadn't been for the urgency of the situation, Simmons would have laughed at Grif.

The idiot almost fell over his own feet as he was running around as if he had soiled his pants. While trying not to stumble, he more often than not would almost run Simmons over when he came to a sudden halt and Grif didn't notice early enough. This would often cause some almost grotesque maneuvers from Grif in order to avoid either of them falling on the ground.

Anyways. As he had thought before, not the time to be dwelling on that.

Looking up the reason for the alarm on the panel, he could see that something was up in the backyard.

The tree. _Bitters!_

Muttering curses under his breath, Simmons again began running towards the big oak in the middle of the house's grounds, arriving just as Carolina and Matthews also arrived there.

He could see the look of utter panic on the young empath's face, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.

"Simmons, you have to help us in the surgery! Go down and prepare everything while Kimball and I get Bitters!" Carolina told him without preamble, "Grey is trying to save the tree!"

The young student nodded, turning on his heels and running towards the stairs. He knew that something had happened with Bitters. He had seen the tree for a second and already knew that Bitters would be in serious trouble.

Running down the stairs, he heard the Hawaiian's paw-steps behind him, "Grif, you know the rules."

The whine he got as an answer made Simmons want to give in, but he had to stay adamant about this.

Grif's presence could endanger Bitters further.

"Seriously, Grif. Not this time. You can stay outside, but not a step further…got it?" Although there came no reply from the wolven, Simmons knew that he had understood.

Simmons dashed into the surgery room, starting to prepare everything. Grey would appear as soon as she could, at the very least to check over the Dryad following the treatment. As it was looking now, he would have to take over the whole surgery for Grey although it would be Kimball who would be in charge of the operation.

While the redhead organized the surgery utensils, Kimball and Carolina came in with Bitters. He could hear him groaning faintly. The stubborn idiot was still awake.

After Carolina and Simmons transferred the Dryad from the transport stretcher to the surgery stretcher as Kimball got ready, Simmons gave Bitters the first anesthetic injection. No need to be torturing the poor guy any more than he already had been.

After what felt like hours (though according to the clock, it had been less than three), Kimball announced the surgery to be over. They had done what they could. They wrapped up the bigger cuts and bruises, treated some burns, and gave him painkillers and some more anesthetic before rolling him into a single room beside the surgery area.

They swiftly attached the surveillance instruments before letting him alone. They would all get an alarm on their pagers if his health worsened.

Simmons mechanically put away the stuff they had used, sterilizing and cleaning the surgery room before throwing away the surgery clothes and getting clean. Luckily, there was a shower down here which allowed him to take a short shower following what had happened.

He needed the shower. He felt gross, sticky, and he just wanted to get clean again. To distance himself a bit from everything.

After that, he went out only to be met by Grif who immediately starting to whine again when he saw Simmons.

"You're such a whiny bitch, you know that?"

There was a growl in response to Simmons' comment, although the wolven followed Simmons immediately still when he began climbing up the stairs.

Arriving on the top step, he managed to stop Kimball before she could get to the rest of the inhabitants of the Sanctuary (as they were all awake by now) to inform them about what had happened.

He quickly explained to her that it would help Bitters if they could move him to his own room. Dryads would recover better when surrounded by trees.

After shortly discussing it, Kimball cleared the Dryad to be moved to his own room whenever he woke up and survived the worst. Before then, he would have to stay in the room he was in now.

Simmons made a quick mental note to ask someone to bring the Dryad the seedling of a tree, so the young guy would at least have something that might help him heal quicker and also occupy his time with.

After Kimball disappeared, Simmons went over to Matthews' room. When he opened the door, he could see the young blonde sitting with Carolina on his bed.

The moment the redhead entered the room, Matthews was in his personal space, bombarding him with questions. Like how Bitters was doing, if he had taken a lot of injuries, if he would get well soon, and many more.

Simmons smiled, lifting a hand to make the young empath's rambling stop, "He's doing fine. Not cleared for visitors yet though, but I think tomorrow you might be able to visit him. We'll inform you as soon as you can go and see him, okay?"

This offer seemed to persuade the young empath to stop trying to get information out of Simmons.

Instead he slumped back on the bed, Simmons now taking a seat on his unoccupied side with Grif lying down at his feet.

Just when he was about to ask something, Matthews started speaking.

"You know," his long bangs were hanging across his face and hiding his expression, "I woke up and felt worry coming from the tree. Like Bitters was worried something could happen. In the next second, when the lightning struck the tree, I felt like the lightning struck _me_. I only felt hot pain in me, like I was going to die in the next second." Matthews swallowed.

Simmons sat there beside him, not really knowing what to say or do to comfort the poor young boy. He suspected this was the reason why he had looked so wrecked when he had appeared before.

"So you told Kimball and Carolina that there was something wrong with Bitters?"

Matthews nodded, "I first almost didn't find the office because I was still feeling pain. Only pain. And I still feel it." The young boy wrapped his arms around himself, as if trying to shield his body from more pain coming from the outside.

"You still feel it?"

Matthews nodded again, before simply adding, "It's a horrible pain."

Matthews began to shake.

Simmons laid an arm around Matthews' shaking shoulder.

Carolina resisted doing the same as they all knew how awkward the young boy was around girls. Just like Simmons.

"How is he?" asked Matthews again, Simmons noticing that there was a wish to know more than just the normal answer of _"He's doing well considering the circumstances."_

Simmons sighed before answering.

"He took a pretty bad hit." The redhead explained, causing the empath to pale visibly.

"He's not injured externally or internally though, and he didn't take a direct blow." He hurried to clarify, "Although we can't say if he's going to make it at the moment. We had to put him into a light coma to stop the pain and give his body a rest."

There was another silence, before Carolina spoke up, "I suspect it's because of the tree."

Simmons nodded, "I think so too."

Matthews looked questioningly from Carolina to Simmons.

Carolina looked out the window with Simmons following her glance while he explained, "Well, he's fostering one tree. Although he's a Dryad, I suspect he has developed a pretty strong bond to this specific tree. Which makes him something between a Dryad and a Hama-Dryad, causing him to feel the same pain as the tree does."

The fire had already died out due to the rain falling.

The lightning had split the tree in two, hitting it dead in its center.

Hopefully, the tree and Bitters would survive.

Thanks to Grey, the tree had received rudimentary first aid which stopped the tree from 'bleeding' out and helped to close as much wounds as possible.

The rest only the tree could do. And time. Maybe Bitters could do something as well when he was doing better.

Simmons hoped both would survive. Not only for Bitters' sake, but also for the tree's, Kimball's, and Matthews'.

Carolina clearing her throat brought him back to reality, "Oh yes, I'm sorry. Where was I? Ah…"

Simmons stumbled out some more or less incoherent words before continuing, "As he's no Hama-Dryad, I suspect he will survive even if the tree should die."

Simmons again looked to the tree, "However, due to his strong bond with the tree, he takes on roughly the same injuries as the tree does. Although you wouldn't see external injuries in his case as he didn't get hit personally. It's like a transfer. Like you, Matthews."

He looked the young empath directly in his eyes, "You felt Bitters' pain. It's a bit similar to the way Bitters takes on the same injuries as the tree."

Simmons ended his explanation and waited for anyone to ask a question.

Shortly after, Carolina left the two young men as Kimball required her presence in the canteen to inform the rest of the Sanctuary's guests.

Being Kimball's assistant, Carolina had to be present whenever something this important happened.

"So you're saying he's this bad off because the tree was hit so badly?" Matthews asked after Carolina left.

The question was spoken in a low tone, his eyes full of worry for the Dryad lying in the infirmary.

Simmons nodded, "Exactly."

"So I can't feel what Bitters is feeling because he's out of it right now?"

"Yes. For the moment the pain and the medication were too much, causing him to fall into a deep unconsciousness. Although I'm sure you'll be feeling something again soon. Even with him in a light coma, you should be able to feel him." Simmons informed him with a small smile and a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder.

He admired the strong bond the two had already built up. Normally an empath would either feel all the emotions of every person around him or shut them off, causing him to feel nothing but his own feelings.

Seeing him here and learning that he was able to shut off all foreign feelings except for those of Bitters was something special. This only happened if an empath and another person built up a strong bond with one another.

Such as a deep friendship or even something more.

Seeing that Matthews obviously had found someone here, who would help him with his insecurities was something that made Simmons smile.

He still struggled more than not with his own insecurities, often wanting to talk to someone to make the pain in his soul go away.

He would often think of telling Grif, but he always discarded this thought as fast as he could as the lazy Hawaiian wouldn't listen to his ramblings anyway. He would act as if he would listen, but would only probably take a nap instead and have no clue what had happened in the conversation following that. With that notion lodged firmly in his mind, Simmons preferred keeping all of that shit inside rather than telling it to a sleeping Grif.

Besides, he didn't really want to bother Grif with his idiotic insecurities anyway. He had enough on his own plate with working at the lumberyard and watching out for Kai.

He sighed, before getting up and dragging a hand through his hair, "I think he will be cleared by tomorrow. You should go to sleep. When Bitters is cleared for visiting we'll inform you, okay?"

Matthews nodded after some moments, obviously he would have preferred going to Bitters now rather than tomorrow if it were possible, but he knew he had to accept Kimball's orders.

He bid his goodbyes, waving when Simmons left with the wolven.

Grif was still hot on his heels, still looking utterly afraid since the thunderstorm was still going on. He flinched with every thunder rolling over the house. Since it had started, the storm had yet to get any weaker. It was staying where it was with the same violence like hours before when it had first started.

They often seemed to have these strange wind conditions, causing the weather to get stuck in one place overhead with it not being able to move for several hours until the wind would finally change and blow the clouds away.

Well, hopefully, the storm would not hit anything else in or around the Sanctuary at least.

Simmons had already had more than his fair share of lightning striking things for this year.

Walking back to his room, he heard the low sound of blunt claws ticking on the stone floor. He knew those were Grif's.

Another thunder burst made the wolven whine lowly, immediately speeding up to walk beside Simmons.

With these weather conditions, Grif would stay with Simmons for the night. The redhead didn't care.

He didn't dislike the presence of the wolven. They would often sit together in amicable silence, just enjoying each other's company. Sometimes Grif would sleep while Simmons learned or worked on his essays during the day, sometimes he would stay during the night and slept on the mattress beside Simmons' bed.

The redhead actually had already thought about simply not putting away the mattress, so that Grif could show up whenever he wanted to.

He did it regardless, but with leaving the mattress on the floor he would already be prepared for those cases.

Simmons smiled to himself. Grif's lazy attitude had begun rubbing off on him as well apparently.

Of course he wouldn't let the mattress stay out on the floor. He would put it away tomorrow.

Opening his door, he let the wolven walk into his room and take his spot on the mattress on the floor where he immediately curled up into a massive furry ball. After closing the door and switching off the light Simmons walked over to his bed, ready to slip under his covers.

The cool wind blowing through the open window made the temperatures fall, though the rain never came in thanks to the blinds. Simmons decided to keep the clothes he wore on and slipped under his covers dressed as he was right now.

He just wanted to crash and sleep through the rest of the night until tomorrow.

Kimball had written him a text that he would be cleared from all work tomorrow, being able to sleep in for once. Simmons really intended on doing as he was told this time: sleeping until he felt completely recovered from the stressful events that had happened earlier.

Even though he wanted to do nothing more but fall asleep just then, he suddenly felt as if his bed was too big for him alone. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he felt his adrenaline wearing off and he let his brain process what had happened.

They had almost lost Bitters and still didn't know for certain if he would make it. Matthews was completely out of sorts from what he felt and what had happened to Bitters.

The realization of everything suddenly fell about his ears. Bitters had almost died. The tree had taken heavy damage. Matthews was all out of sorts which was no wonder given what he had felt through all of that. Grey would need about a day to recover from the excessive use of her magical powers to restore the tree even as much as she had been able to do. Kimball and Carolina had to organize everything for the next few days to move Bitters to his room.

While he was just sitting here.

After helping with the surgery on Bitters. After putting him into a coma.

Simmons had a terrible sense that it was his fault if Bitters didn't wake up. What if he stayed like this and never recovered? It had been _him_ who put the Dryad into a deep slumber, after all!

Suddenly, the memory of Bitters on the surgery table was replaying itself over and over again in his head.

With one major difference: he didn't see himself surgically treating Bitters, but _Grif_.

He saw Grif being injured and lying on the infirmary bed in the basement of the building with an oxygen-mask on his face and an IV in his arm.

He immediately felt cold. He didn't feel like wanting to be alone or sleep alone. The bed suddenly looked way too big and way too cold to comfortably sleep in. It felt like he would be lying in a cold, freshly dug grave.

Simmons knew that was bullshit, but that was what he felt right now. Horribly cold, alone, and frightened.

He began to shake as he briskly got up and walked around the bed to get the blanket from Grif's stack of stuff.

The wolven opened one eye as he felt the bed shift underneath him when Simmons sat down beside him.

The redhead had slung the blanked around him but he was still trembling like a leaf. He felt horrible. Like he wanted to throw up.

Those images clung to his mind like chewing-gum on the sole of a shoe. Those twisted images of a person he held very dear warped with his memory made him want to throw up.

He needed to be around someone. More specifically, he needed to be around Grif.

He needed to be close to him: to hear his heart beating and to feel his warmth. To persuade himself that he was okay, that the lazy fucker was actually lying on the mattress beside his bed and already starting to drop off into slumber.

That he wasn't lying on the infirmary bed two floors underneath Simmons' room and fighting for his life.

The redhead couldn't say why he pictured Grif in that situation, nor why this made him so upset and feel like he was about to throw up and cry.

Grif was his best pal, nothing more.

It wasn't like he loved the lazy fuck!

Sure, he was worried about his best friend getting hurt. But he worried about his friend, not his crush.

There was a difference and Simmons drew a strict line there.

While Simmons rustled around and tried to get comfortable beside the wolven, he swore that he saw a glint of amusement spark up in those eyes of his.

"Shut the fuck up and go to sleep." the redhead muttered in embarrassment, the tips of his ears turning red.

Leaning against the flank of the wolven and burying his face in the ragged fur, he felt the clinging fear in his heart already disappearing.

Simmons swore he heard the wolven huffing in amusement when Simmons grabbed a fistful of fur and buried his face in Grif's unruly hair. He actually wanted to tell him where he could shove his amusement, but discarded the thought when he felt the bulky body shift.

A telltale weight suddenly in his lap indicated to him that Grif was using his lap as a pillow just then.

With a small smile, the redhead began to stroke the wolven behind his ears. He heard a contented hum in response from the Hawaiian.

Both wolven and human fell asleep no more than a minute later.


	11. Chapter 11

When Simmons woke up the next day, he felt his body being pressed against something warm.

It wasn't his pillow, that's for sure. Mainly because his pillow wouldn't produce heat on its own or make any sounds remotely similar to what a living being would.

Blinking his eyes open, he could see bright orange fabric covering a body that was blocking out the sunlight peering through the closed blinds.

The redhead yawned lowly, trying not to wake up the person sleeping beside him.

It had to be Grif. Only he would wear blatant orange shirts that hurt your eyes when you looked at them directly.

But… Why was he here?

Rubbing his eyes groggily with his free hand, the memories of last night suddenly came rushing back to him.

The thunderstorm.

Grif coming over as a wolven because he was afraid of. Simmons preparing a bed to let him sleep here.

Then lightning striking the tree. Simmons treating a badly injured Bitters.

Simmons going to sleep on the mattress with Grif because he didn't want to sleep alone.

He had felt so horribly alone in that moment, which had caused him to impulsively decide that he would sleep in the same bed with the wolven.

He was about to jump up when he felt the arm around his shoulders hold him down.

Confused, Simmons stared at the hand on his shoulder. It was broad and calloused, just as you would imagine the hand of someone working hard all day being. At a lumberyard, for example.

"You're supposed to sleep in." Grif's voice sounded very much awake. Too awake for him to have just woken up in fact.

"But I have to look after Bitters!" Simmons protested, trying to push against Grif's grip once more.

"You're not strong enough to fight me, beansprout." Grif replied with his trademark lopsided grin, showing off a pointed fang, "By the way, Kimball dropped by when you were asleep. She told me that Matthews was able to build up his emotional bridge to the guy again. He's fine. Beaten up but fine. So no need to go check on him. She already did."

Simmons contemplated his words. He knew that Grif wouldn't lie. However, it was strange to hear it from him.

"And you know this because?" the redhead replied a bit snappily because Grif still hadn't let go of him. "Because I was about to slip into my clothes when I heard Kimball knock. I answered as you were still fast asleep. She explained everything to me and told me to make sure you that got a good night's rest."

Grif explained, "As you really didn't during the night, I'm going to make sure you nap enough during the day."

He looked at the redhead carefully, "I suppose you had some kind of dream. You didn't sleep well."

Was Simmons mistaken or did he hear a twinge of worry just then in Grif's voice? Simmons again wiggled, trying to break free. But the stubborn fucker wouldn't let him go!

"But there's a lot of work to do!" Simmons tried protesting again.

"Which you are cleared of today. Remember her words?" Grif responded with an annoyed frown appearing across his features.

"And what about college? I need to learn to pass the final exams! They're soon!"

Grif sighed, "They're in about two months, Simmons, so stop peeing your pants. You're more than prepared. Besides a day off won't kill you, but could actually help you. You still have enough time to learn."

He yawned, not even bothering to hold a hand in front of his mouth while he did so.

Simmons felt his annoyance rising, "I have to learn! I'm not prepared enough! I—"

"Simmons." Grif interrupted the redhead's rambling, "You've prepared more than enough. I've seen you taking the test-runs. Ninety to a hundred percent scores." He informed him, "So stop it. You're prepared. You're only gonna freak out by pushing yourself like this."

"And what if a subject is tested that I didn't prepare for?"

"You're prepped every subject possible and more. So stop being a whiny bitch. And now," Grif turned around and slung his other arm around Simmons' waist, pulling him closer, "Go back to sleep. Or do I have to change into a wolven and lie on you to make you stay in bed?"

"You're heavy enough as you are, fat-ass." Simmons muttered into the Hawaiian's chest, his face feeling hot.

A low chuckle emitted from deep within the wolven's chest at that, "Sometimes being bulkier isn't so bad."

"You're not bulky, you're fat." Simmons was quite to inform him.

"And you're a stressed-out idiot." Grif was equally quick with his retort.

"Asshole."

"Idiot."

"Nerd."

"Lazy-ass!"

"I know, now let's get to sleep."

Simmons didn't know what to say on this reply. Grif would never voluntarily end a banter between them when he wasn't the winning part.

Simmons still laid there, stiff as a board and face as red as a tomato.

Grif was lying with him. Holding him close in his arms and with his face buried in Simmons' hair. Did he only imagine it or did Grif place a kiss on the top of his head? The wolven's breath would move through Simmons' hair and tickle him from time to time.

He obviously was fast asleep again.

How could the fucker fall asleep so fast anyways? There was only a space of about thirty seconds from him declaring the banter was over until he had fallen asleep.

This guy was so impossible sometimes!

Simmons, on the other hand, still laid awake for some minutes more and listened to the steady beating of Grif's heart along with his breathing, while thinking over different things.

The Hawaiian had arrived here with his sister in tow soon after Simmons arrived. The redhead hadn't even noticed his arrival at first as he again was spending his days in the library to study. He had just started college and wanted a good start to it, which made him study very hard.

He had been insecure, even around Grif. He had stuttered and used to turn invisible as soon as something was out of his comfort zone: which was practically everything that he wasn't already used to.

And back then he was used to almost nothing.

So, well, he used to turn invisible a fucking lot at the time.

Grif didn't really care about his insecurities. He would not only find him due to the clothes hanging in the middle of the air, but also due to his scent as the wolven once explained.

After some months, Simmons had asked him about that.

The first time he had found Simmons was a coincidence, apparently. He had smelled a foreign scent and had followed it out of curiosity, only to end up finding Simmons as a result.

By the time they became friends and spent a lot more time together, Simmons' scent became something Grif would recognize even out of a million other scents.

He would always find the redhead, visible or not.

That was something that had helped Simmons with his insecurities in a way: knowing that he would have a friend who would always be there for him.

Grif soon found work at the local lumberyard thanks to Kimball's recommendation, while Simmons began to help Kimball with more than just cleaning up the cages of the dangerous inhabitants. He soon became the right hand of Kimball's right hand.

Or something like that at least.

However, no matter what, whenever Simmons felt like freaking out because of the work and college (sometimes just because he had not gotten the best mark out of his class)…Grif would always plop down on the couch in the library next to Simmons without so much as a word, soon falling asleep.

He used to say that he could smell it when Simmons was about to freak out over idiotic things. Only this presence used to calm the redhead down, making it possible to focus on the important matters still ahead of him. Grif's presence not only used to calm him down, but it would also reassure him that everything would be okay and that he was doing fine the way he was.

Grif didn't really need to say something to have that effect. Just his presence there was enough to have Simmons feel that way.

And just then, the redhead suddenly realized that there maybe was more than simply friendship between them. He couldn't name it. Not yet. But it felt like he felt more than friendship for the Hawaiian when he thought about him.

There was more, definitely, and at the same time he knew Grif didn't feel like a brother to him. Or what he suspected it to feel like when you have a sibling. As a single child, it's difficult to know those types of emotions.

He had no idea what he should think or not think about the Hawaiian.

Lying here, still listening to Grif's sleeping sounds and inhaling his scent, he tried to figure out what it was what he felt exactly.

"Stop thinking and go to sleep. You thinking so hard makes it impossible to nap properly." Grif mumbled, tightening his embrace just a bit in the process.

Simmons froze in place at that before he allowed his body to relax again.

Maybe Grif was right: Kimball had told him to take this day off. And maybe a day spent napping and relaxing instead of working and studying his ass off would help to make him feel less edgy.

The redhead closed his eyes and cuddled closer to the source of his comfort just then.

It was hot as hell anyway and Simmons was drenched in sweat, just as Grif was. But he didn't care. He felt way too comfortable at the moment to shift away from Grif.

He liked being held. He felt safe and secure here with him.

Maybe, just for today, he could allow himself the luxury of this feeling…although he suspected it would be awkward between them when they woke up again and returned to their daily routines.

Matthews hadn't slept at all last night. He mostly sat on his bed, waiting impatiently to feel something more besides his own feelings.

For long and torturous hours, there was nothing.

It felt so empty without those well-known feelings from Bitters he had become accustomed to.

It made him anxious and worried. What if he would never feel those feelings again?

He knew he was gay. And he knew he was in love. What he didn't knew was what Bitters felt on this subject.

Sure, he often used to feel affection when he thought about the Dryad or when they were around each other. But he knew those were his own feelings, not those of Bitters.

Kimball had appeared in the middle of the night, hours after the surgery.

After everything had finally cooled down, she wanted to make sure he was okay. They sat there and Kimball again listened to Matthews' view on what had transpired.

They didn't have much time to elaborate on Matthews' feelings, thoughts, and actions when the emergency had occurred. Kimball wanted to do that now to make sure he really was okay and wouldn't have a mental breakdown the minute he was left alone.

The time passed much faster when Kimball was sitting with him and listening to Matthews' ramblings and emotional garbage he felt he had to get rid of. She listened patiently, not judging or scolding him for what he did or said.

They both knew it was a stress reaction and he needed to do it in order to not snap. Just like Simmons.

He was so consumed in his ramblings that Matthews almost didn't notice that there was a spark lighting up in his soul, something suddenly returning there that he had missed so fucking bad.

Bitters' emotions!

Kimball's smile became fonder itself when a huge smile exploded on his face and he told her happily that Bitters was back.

He explained to her that he was still feeling a slight bit of discomfort, and was weak and powered out as a result of everything.

But beyond that, he was feeling better and on his way to a full recovery. The leader of the Sanctuary exhaled in relief, saying that she had hoped all along that Matthews perhaps would have been able to tell her more about the state the Dryad was in.

Of course, Matthews asked Kimball if he could visit him. The leader only told him that he should wait until tomorrow morning, as she wanted them to sit out the first critical twelve hours.

Soon after Kimball had left, the young empath tried to sleep but only tossed and turned in his bed until he gave up on that completely.

As soon as the sun rose, Matthews did too.

He got ready and went to breakfast, before he studied quickly and asked Kimball afterwards if there were any shops in town that were open on Sundays and could deliver the seedling of a tree.

The woman smiled and made a short phone call, before telling the young empath that there would be someone waiting for him in the center of the city.

An hour later, Matthews came back with the seedling of an oak. The little plant wasn't much bigger than his forearm and at the beginning of a hopefully very long life.

As the Dryad was doing well, Kimball allowed Carolina to move the young boy to his room closer to the tree.

Kimball also informed Matthews that he would be allowed to visit the Dryad now.

Carolina would be with him to check up on Bitters' condition, but he would be cleared afterwards.

With a stuttered thank you in response, the young empath practically flew out of the room and marched down the halls to Bitters' room. He tried not to run, although his pace was more running than walking.

Arriving at the door, he was just about to knock when the wooden door opened.

Carolina stood there, her hair glowing red from the light of the sun shining on it from behind.

"I, uh, want to visit Bitters! Kimball—Kimball said he's been cleared." The empath stuttered, clutching the seedling closer to his chest.

The phoenix at first didn't say a word in response, only cocking an eyebrow.

Matthews knew how he probably looked just then: shoulders hunched, clutching to a seedling of a tree like it was a fucking lifeline, eyes wide with worry, fear and anticipation mixing in his gut, and his face beet red to top the whole nervous picture off.

Carolina's facial expression softened, a knowing smile appearing on her features. Although Matthews had a sneaking suspicion that the smile was a bit teasing too.

"He is and you can go to him. Just don't try to kiss him awake." She remarked, "Taking off his oxygen mask would cause an alarm."

Sputtering incoherent words at that, Matthews pushed by a now grinning Carolina and stumbled over to the bed the Dryad was lying on.

He didn't notice the Phoenix leaving. He was too focused on his crush lying there.

The normally dark skin of the other young man looked sickly pale, the leaves in his hair brown and dry.

Everywhere on his body, at least the parts of him that were visible, were gauzes wrapping up different scratches and bruises.

The oxygen mask on his face and the IV in his arm completed the picture. He looked horrible.

"Hey there, Bitters." Matthews muttered, pulling a chair closer to the bed and sitting on it, "I just got permission to come here. They moved you to your room, so you can be close to the tree. I hope you like it."

During the next few hours, Matthews told him what had happened from yesterday evening up until now. Even what he had been doing during that time.

Although he didn't say what he was really feeling for the Dryad or that he was close to freaking out because he was so worried. He didn't want to scare away his only friend. And he didn't know how much Bitters had heard and realized in his coma from what Matthews told him either.

"…And then, I went to the arboretum in the center of the city to get you a fosterling. I hope you like him."

Almost carefully, as if fearful he would break the tree if he was too rough with him, Matthews put the tree down on the bedside table next to Bitters' head.

The tree was in a big pot, allowing both the roots and the tree to grow. The soil was fresh and he had gotten a lot of water already.

The young empath had repotted the little tree together with the owner of the arboretum to surprise the Dryad.

"I'm sure he will have a good foster father and will become a strong and big tree with someone like you looking after him." A fond smile appeared on Matthews' features, and he carefully took a hold of Bitters' hand with his own, "You showed your badass skills already by saving the big oak from dying when it got a terrible infection. Thanks to you we were able to save the tree before he took lethal damage."

After that, Matthews soon lapsed into silence. He didn't really know what to say anymore.

He began to study Bitters' face, trying to see and feel any sign that the Dryad would wake up soon or react to him somehow.

During this time, he must have fallen asleep due to being completely worn out from the previous night.

The next thing he was aware of was that his head was resting on his arms that he had at some point used as makeshift pillows, while a hand was gently weaving through his hair.

Blearily, he lifted his head and blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

He needed some seconds to process what was happening just then. While he had been asleep, Bitters had woken up!

A happy smile appeared on his lips, which he mustered for the Dryad.

The hand had slipped away from his head and was now resting on Matthews' own.

Bitters still looked weak, although he tried to smile back in response to Matthews' very visible one. The empath again felt an oh-so-familiar wave of affection wash over him at that, but he pushed it aside as this was not the time or place for his feelings to take over.

"Hey…" Bitters weakly squeezed Matthews' hand.

"Hey. How are you?" Matthews squeezed Bitters' hand in return.

"Feel like shit." Bitters muttered, his eyes still resting on the empath's face.

"I can imagine that, after what happened." Matthews said, studying the features of the Dryad in turn.

After some moments of comfortable silence had passed between them, Bitters then asked, "How bad is he?"

Matthews needed a moment to realize that Bitters was referring to the oak, "He took a pretty bad blow. Right in the center. He got split in two. However, thanks to Grey, he got rudimentary first aid. Wait a moment."

Matthews needed to tear himself away from Bitters' side to pull the curtains back so that the Dryad could see the tree.

Matthews felt the shock and worry from Bitters when he saw the tree's injuries.

"Oh my god…" Although Bitters was weak, the shock was audible in his voice.

"Yeah, we actually weren't sure you and the tree would make it. However, so far both of you are doing well considering the circumstances." He tried reassuring.

Bitters huffed lowly, letting himself fall back on the bed. Matthews again closed the curtains to allow Bitters to sleep whenever he felt like he wanted to again and so he wouldn't be disturbed by the sun.

Just when the empath sat back down on the chair, the Dryad saw something else that piqued his curiosity.

"Did you bring this little fellow?" The Dryad gestured toward the potted tree, Matthews sensing from Bitters that he was already making a connection to the seedling.

"Yes, I thought this little guy would have a good foster dad in you." He explained, "And you would have someone keeping you company when I'm not around."

"He's a strong little one." There was a tinge of pride already in Bitters' voice when speaking of the seedling, and he looked over at Matthews questioningly, "You repotted him?"

"Actually, yes, before I brought him here." Matthews replied with a smile, pink dusting his cheeks when he again felt affection swelling up in his heart.

Bitters regarded the tree one last time before turning his gaze back to Matthews, "He's very grateful for it." He informed him, "The old pot had been way too small and the soil had been stale. He now has new soil, more space, and enough water to grow."

The pink on Matthews' cheeks got darker at Bitters' praise, "Uh… T—thanks."

"I guess he also needs some sun to grow well, don't you think?" Again, it was Bitters who started to speak to fill the sudden silence between them.

"Uh— yes, I guess so. But you need rest too. And sleeping with open curtains doesn't help you get a decent night's rest." Matthews replied, peeking up sheepishly to gauge the Dryad's reaction to that.

"I'm fine. Remember that I slept in the woods before? You won't find any curtains there." An awkward smile appeared on his lips.

Matthews couldn't help but think that his voice sounded rather unsound through the mask.

"Right. But I'll only open one of the curtains enough for the tree." The empath insisted.

"Okay, agreed."

Matthews took the seedling and put it down on the table closest to the window. After that, he opened the curtain to let in some more light. Bitters could decide about the optimal place to put the seedling into the soil outside when he was out of his room later.

"Are you going to stay here?" Bitters looked expectantly at Matthews who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room afterwards, kneading his fingers.

"O—Only if you want me to."

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want you around, genius."

If snarky comebacks were any indicator of health, Bitters was already doing pretty well.

"Okay." Matthews muttered, again taking up his spot on the chair beside Bitters' bed. He didn't fight it at all when the Dryad reached out and grabbed his hand moments later, lacing their fingers together.


	12. Chapter 12

During the next weeks, Matthews would stay with Bitters as much as he could. He would learn in his room, sometimes even eat to keep him company, hell he would even sleep there if it wasn't for Kimball, Carolina and Simmons who would shoo him out to sleep in his own bed.

Although Matthews would often sneak back into the Dryads room, as soon as the three of them were gone.

It was July by now, Matthews had just gotten the information that he successfully passed the final exams. Next summer would be his last one in high school, before he would go to college. He was already looking for colleges with a good reputation when it came to study psychology there. He once heard that Atlanta had one of the best colleges of the country. Matthews hoped that he would be able to start study there.

It was the first day of his holidays, but instead of sleeping in, the young empath hopped out of his bed as soon as the alarm went off in the morning. Kimball had given him some tasks since he had settled in here in the Sanctuary. First was to clean the cages and feed the not so dangerous guests on the lower floor.

Which would consume about three hours when doing it alone. Normally he would do this task together with Simmons, but as Matthews had holidays, he insisted on doing it alone. He wanted to show the others that he was capable of taking care of himself and others well.

At least he thought it…

Some hours after having breakfast and going down, he sat at the Dryads bed, his right arm wrapped up tightly. The last guest he had to serve had been in a very bad mood – Even worse than this Church-guy – and attacked him. Ending in a pretty deep cut on his forearm. Great…

Sighing the redhead leaned back in his chair, thinking about the situation. This guest's whole demeanor and feelings had been normal, yet friendly. Well, Kimball had explained him afterwards that his mood could change within seconds, the attack following coming too fast for even an empath to register and process what happened.

For the rest of summer, Simmons would help the empath with the guests, just like they had done it before.

Matthews sighed. Great. He really proved that he could take care of himself, huh?

"You look pretty beat up." Muttered Bitters as greeting. He still looked not completely recovered.

Although he already looked way better than before. The leaves had their green color back, as well as his facial color didn't look so ashen anymore. He didn't need any oxygen mask or IV and was allowed to walk around for limited times. He still had to watch out to not overburden himself.

Although Matthews highly doubted that the Dryad would manage to overburden his body.

"Tell me. One of the assholes downstairs seemed to have a worse mood than Church today." The empath played with the loose end of a patch on his left hand.

"But you're okay?" the worry coming from Bitters made Matthews smile. He observed the young Dryad sit up on the bed and turn to face him, before answering.

"Only a deeper cut at my right arm. Nothing more. Nothing that won't heal." He showed the bandage on his arm, before looking over his interlocutor.

"You're also looking better. Not like dry firewood anymore."

"Hey!" Bitters shoved the young empath with a laugh. "At least I don't look like being put through a blender!"

"Well, yeah…" Matthews smile got awkward. Bitters comeback had hit a nerve, but Matthews tried not to show it too clear as Bitters could impossibly know that he felt bad about it.

"Uh- did I say something wrong?" Matthews lift his head, only to see Bitters now leaning forward to muster his face. He involuntarily leaned back a bit out of surprise.

"No!" exclaimed the young empath, before adding "No, nothing. I just wanted to do this alone to show everyone that I'm capable to handle something alone. Well, that's the result." He lift his hand with another awkward smile, before letting it sink back on his lap.

"So you think you're any less because this fucktard attacked you?"

"Kinda. He should know me by now, but obviously, he still thinks I'm kind of an enemy."

"That guy had been an asshole to you, so don't beat yourself up about something like that." Matthews never heard Bitters being so stern and yet so agitated. Normally he wouldn't give a fuck about something.

Matthews smiled thinly. "I know. Still it is my task to do and I don't manage it alone, although I do it for months now."

"How about giving this guy, and more important, yourself some time? Nothing works on first try. Be patient."

This time Matthews really gaped at Bitters explanation. He really didn't suspect the Dryad being able to be so stern and already have so much life experience. On the other hand, he had been through more than Matthews could imagine. Maybe that was why he sounded so mature at times.

Fidgeting with his fingers, Matthews only nodded. "I can try to be more patient." Muttered the empath in reply, before lapsing back into an uncomfortable silence.

"There's also something else bothering you." Pointed Bitters out, what made the blonde jump slightly.

"Uh- no. There's nothing! Really not!"

"Yeah sure, and tomorrow it's gonna snow. I call bullshit on that." The Dryad straightened and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

This time, Matthews jaw snapped shut with an audible click of his teeth, again beginning to stare down on his fingers.

He couldn't tell Bitters. He was sure the Dryad wouldn't believe him nor feel the same way he did. He was a fucking high school idiot in love with someone, who wouldn't even understand the concept of human love and feelings as he had grown up in a forest, far away from human civilization.

Hell, Matthews even had to show him how to eat properly or to dress in a decent manner. They have had some fights over that during the last months. Matthews had to accept that the Dryad wouldn't wear scratchy human clothing (his wording) when being with the tree or in his room, as Bitters had to accept that Matthews could be a bitch about his manners in general.

Well, seeing your crush only in 'underwear' when you walk in the room didn't make it any easier. Even less when said crush seemed to some kind of love to tease you with that and you always start blushing furiously and begin to stutter like a broken record.

However, he couldn't tell Bitters. He couldn't tell him what he felt because the Dryad of course wouldn't feel the same way as he did. How big were the odds to fall in love with someone (when being gay) and find out that this person felt the same about you? They're less than zero. Unfortunately…

He had gotten used to the fact that he would like someone, only to find out that they're whether gay nor interested in any way in him. Even less when everyone on school already would know that he wasn't swinging the way every 'normal' person would.

He always had been the victim of bullying and bad jokes. They even went so far to put up some kind of soap opera, pretending his crush would feel the same for him, only to crush him afterwards with a coldness, where ice would be fucking warm.

This had been the day where Matthews had started to retreat. Where he began to prefer to stay alone, only having himself as company, rather than being around bullies like in school. Of course it got only worse, however, he still preferred to let it be like that. He had passed classes with the best marks possible, trying to shine academically, if not socially.

Anyway, he was getting ahead of himself. Bitters…

He couldn't tell Bitters. He wouldn't understand. All those times he had gotten hurt and bothered, just because he was gay and not a 'normal' young boy made him wary considering those thing. It made him reluctant and closed up in this particular part of his life. It made him keeping his feelings inside rather than being honest and getting hurt again.

He couldn't tell Bitters. He… "You wouldn't understand," muttered the young empath finally, his gaze fixated on his hands.

"If you don't tell me, then it's only logic"al that I won't understand." Retorted Bitters with slight annoyance.

"No I mean, you really wouldn't understand. It's idiotic and dumb and… I should go." Suddenly the whole room felt way too small for someone with normal body size to live in. It suffocated Matthews. He felt like not getting enough air in his lungs and felt how the walls began to close around him. The only thought he could think of right now was: Get out of here. Now!

Turning around, he tried to walk out of the room. The turn however, and the lack of oxygen, made him stumble and almost fall. If Bitters hadn't been around to catch him up. "Whoa there, easy pal."

Carefully, he made Matthews stand back on his own feet, mustering the young boy.

"You better sit down." Gently he maneuvered the empath to his bed, making him sit down. Standing in front of the young male, he cupped his face in his hands.

"Everything's fine. Come on, let's fix your breathing," started the Dryad, waiting for the empath to react on him somehow. He found this reaction in Matthews eyes fixating him. "Breathing in long breaths through your nose, and breathing out through your mouth. Five seconds in and out. Come on. One, two, three…"

The first breaths were ragged and short, only desperately trying to get air into his system. Then, after more than a minute, the young empath finally was able to fight down his panic attack, breathing normally again. He breathed in and out to Bitters lead, soon feeling the suffocating and crushing feeling of the panic attack disappear.

"Thanks." Muttered Matthews, when he halfway felt well again.

"No problem. I know this kind of thing." Replied the Dryad with a lopsided grin. "Now," he took his seat beside the empath on his bed. "You still didn't tell me what happened. I don't care if it's idiotic or dumb."

After a second thought he added. "And I guess it's about me. So I have a right to know what's up."

"I- you-," began Matthews, only to stop himself and taking a steadying breath before restarting "It is about you, but I guess you won't understand. You know, I feel more for you than just for a friend." It was a mystery to Matthews how Bitters managed to break down every wall of defense he put up against him. How he was able to crush his intention to not talk to him about something.

"It's idiotic and I know you won't ever feel the same way I do, so it's better you forget it right away. As I said: Idiotic and dumb. Never mind." Matthews got up to leave the room, but got called back by the Dryad. He was on his feet now too, mustering his dialogue partner attentively.

"You're the one of us two who know how other people feel, right? This whole feel-me-shit?"

"That's what empaths can do. Feel-me-shit." Replied Matthews bitterly. He hadn't turned around, but had stopped walking away when Bitters had called him.

"So you can feel what I feel."

"Obviously." Retorted Matthews dryly.

"So why don't you thickhead shut up for once and just try to feel what I really feel?" snapped Bitters. This time, Matthews turned around with a confused expression. "As you won't believe me other way, go on, do your magical work and tell me what I feel."

"You're annoyed." Pointed the blonde out.

Bitters snorted. "Obviously. But there's more."

Silence set in, where the two males mustered each other. Bitters even took a step towards Matthews. Strangely enough, the young empath didn't flee. He stayed in place, watching the Dryad walking towards him, while still listening to the feelings on his inside.

"You… don't think that this is idiotic what I said. I can't feel any rejection to what I told you."

"Yeah," replied Bitters, he now was standing in front of Matthews. As he was a bit bigger than the empath, he had to look down on him. "Now try again. There's more."

Immediately after prying a bit further, he felt the well-known wave of affection washing over him. He only shook his head.

"Why are you shaking your head?" asked Bitters, observing the empath attentively, who had his eyes closed.

"Because my feelings are getting in my way." Muttered the blonde absentmindedly.

"What if those aren't your feelings but mine? Check again."

The next time, Matthews was pretty sure that he felt Bitters feelings, not his. His feelings always had the touch of freedom and crisp wood air in a chilly morning after nightly rain. This was like his signature, his trademark. Unmistakably marking the feelings he felt as Bitters.

"Oh…" muttered the empath finally, after realizing what this meant.

"Yeah, oh… Took you long enough to figure out." Muttered the Dryad in reply, his trademark annoyance back in his voice and posture. Although everyone who knew him could tell he didn't feel like that at all about the young boy standing in front of him.

"In the forest, we really don't know about the rules the people out here have. And we don't care. We love who we love. No matter who they are or what gender they have."

Matthews was staring down on his feet with a furiously burning face and his mind reeling. Did he really mistake Bitters feelings for his? But why? Normally he was pretty used to tell his and the feelings of the others apart. But here… He had been so convinced that those feelings were his that he didn't even think about the possibility that those feelings could be of Bitters.

"You still there? You don't go into a panic attack again, won't you?" asked Bitters after no reply came from the empath.

"Uh, what? No, sorry. I won't. I just was… in thoughts." Replied the young blonde, blinking a bit taken aback. He still was trying to bring his reeling mind to a halt.

In the end, Bitters took over the task to stop his mind from running in circles. Matthews hadn't noticed, but while pondering the whole mistaking feelings stuff, Bitters had laid a hand on his cheek, gently stroking with his thumb over the cheekbone of the empath.

"Good. Because this would suck major balls if you won't be here." Muttered the Dryad, before gently leaning down and kissing the empath.

Immediately Matthews mind went blank. Bitters was kissing him! Bitters was fucking kissing him!

This was the only information his mind seemed to be able to proceed.

Once, when he finally seemed to process what this all meant, his eyes drifted shut and he kissed back carefully.

He never had kissed anyone. He didn't knew how this should feel or not, what he should feel or not and how it should play out. Should he be trying to pry further? Or just laying his arms around the bigger boy's neck? Should he perhaps try to say something?

He had no idea how this should work out. This here was his first kiss. Even more his first kiss with someone he really liked. No, loved. He had absolutely no clue how it should work out.

Just when he thought on maybe trying something embarrassing for him, Bitters pulled back. Only now registered Matthews that he was out of breath.

"You okay there?" asked the Dryad in a low voice, observing the young boy with a concerned glint in his eyes.

Matthews only nodded, not really trusting his voice anymore.

"Good." Bitters smiled, before gently grabbing Matthews hands, only to place them around his neck, before kissing the empath again.

This time, the young blonde didn't hesitate to kiss Bitters back, intensifying the embrace just a slightly little bit, to avoid his wounds from hurting.

Bitters seemed to be pretty onboard with this development, as he also deepened the kiss and even licked with his tongue over Matthews lower lip.

The young empath almost jumped at this motion, but somehow seemed to get the hint and opened his mouth with a low sigh.

After another small eternity, the two boys had to separate again to get some air back in their system.

Matthews had his arms still around Bitters neck, while his hands had wandered down his slim form, until they came to rest on his hips. He grinned happily.

The same feeling Matthews felt coming from him. Happiness and fondness. Feelings so strong, they made him smile happily.

"What do you think, should we go back to bed and have a proper afternoon-nap? You know I shouldn't overburden myself too much."

Matthews couldn't help but chuckle at his explanation. "You're such a slug, you know that?"

"At least I'm your slug." Replied the Dryad with a teasing grin while he maneuvered them back to the bed to lay down.

"Right, I guess that makes it not so bad." Replied Matthews with another low chuckle, before closing the gap between them again and pressing another kiss on his boyfriend's lips.


	13. Chapter 13

During the summer, Simmons was even busier than usual.

He would help Kimball around the Sanctuary by assisting her with her schedule, feeding the guests, looking after said guests, and helping out with a myriad of other tasks.

For just one moment, he was sitting on the rim of the pool Donut usually resided in when he was home.

The merman in question was floating on his back, his tail on the deck beside Simmons as the redhead examined a spot on it.

Donut had asked him to check it out as he feared that the spot might be some kind of dangerous abscess or something else.

"It's nothing, Donut."

"Are you sure?" he didn't sound too convinced with Simmons' diagnosis, "You should check it again."

Simmons sighed, but did as he was asked, "It's really nothing. Just some different colored scales, like a birthmark."

"But suddenly appearing marks can be a sign of serious skin cancer!" Donut cried, waving his tail in frantic emphasis as he did so.

Simmons became a bit wet because of that.

With an annoyed huff, he wiped the droplets off his face before again grabbing onto the tail. This time he made sure to hold it very tightly but carefully.

He knew how particular Donut was in regards to his body, which would mean that he wouldn't tolerate Simmons leaving any kind of pressure marks on his tail.

"Seriously, Donut," Simmons let out a sigh again, "This is nothing to worry about. There are just some differently colored scales here, just like the color shades in your hair."

He was quick to add to his explanation before Donut could once again protest the matter, "If you're still worried, I suppose you could check again with Kimball in about two to three months. I'll write a report about my findings here, making detailed notes on how your tail looks right now. If you recheck with her later, she'll be able to assess the situation more closely and make an appropriate decision."

Simmons wrote down some notes on the tablet he carried with him. Fortunately, he had been clever enough to wrap the computer up in a towel before meeting up with Donut.

"If you think it's getting significantly worse before then, just call me or Kimball. But only if there's a very obvious or significant change and not just a scale looking slightly darker or fairer than usual, you got me?"

"Yeah, yeah." Donut grumbled, pulling his tail back into the water with a sullen expression across his features still as he sank back into the water for a few seconds.

"By the way." Donut started up in his conversional voice once he had surfaced again. "Have you celebrated your Summsing lode already?"

"Summa cum laude." Simmons replied automatically before he really even understood the question, "And no, I haven't yet. I don't really have the time for that as I have to help here."

"Why not? There's always time for a little bash. Even more when you are celebrating getting the best marks of the whole country on this year's final exams in what you studied!"

"Like I said." Simmons reminded him, "No time."

"Did you at least celebrate with Grif?" Donut looked curious, a smile on his face as he added, "I'm sure you really blew him away!"

"Yeah, yeah… What!?" Simmons turned beet red and began sputtering around incoherently at the mental image that came to mind with Donut's choice of words just then.

"Seriously, Simmons. You don't get such Grade A marks all the time. Celebrate it with someone who is important to you, no matter who they are." Donut got serious again rather quickly, "You have learn to enjoy your life. You can't work your ass off all the time without taking a break. You're going to snap at some point, and it will probably be sooner rather than later if you keep going like you have been."

"But," Simmons muttered, gaze going to the tablet in his hand, "I can't just slack off. Kimball needs me.

Besides, she works even harder than me. This entire Sanctuary only functions if everyone assists with maintaining it."

"You're right," Donut agreed after a moment's contemplation, swimming back to the edge of the pool,

"This place only works with all of our help. But you're not supposed to carry the whole weight of that on your shoulders." he reminded Simmons gently, "We have many friends living here who can assist too and do help out. Learn to let go a little and let others help you more."

"You mean like having someone else possibly take over if I am going to be gone for a day?" Simmons asked insecurely.

He didn't know what to think of this suggestion that Donut was putting forward. He didn't like to leave his work for others when he had the time to do it himself.

But should he really decline if friends wanted to help him and offered? Simmons would often take over shifts for his friends in the Sanctuary whenever they were sick or had other important things they needed to do.

Hell, he would even take over shifts for Grif whenever the wolven was just too lazy to do something. So, wouldn't it simply be him being fair if he just let his friends return the favor every once in a while?

"You still there, Simmons?"

Fingers snapping in front of his face drew him back to reality.

"Uh…yeah, sorry." Simmons blinked absentmindedly, trying to refocus his thoughts, "What did you say?"

"I said," Donut crossed his arms with an annoyed huff at having to repeat his sound advice once more, "That you really should celebrate your mark. You don't need to throw a huge bash or anything, but at the very least celebrate it with the people who cared the most about you doing well besides Carolina and Kimball, okay? Show them you appreciated that."

Donut uncrossed his arms, leaning on the deck.

"Besides, who knows? Maybe you'll be able to gain something else from celebrating. I know you're good at tossing. How about inviting a couple of people to some games?"

The way Donut pronounced 'tossing' and 'game' just then made Simmons turn beet red and splutter incoherently again.

"I think," Simmons managed to cough out after a few moments, "That it would be best if you went for a swim."

Donut had crawled onto the deck during his last speech, which Simmons now threw him off of.

The moment the merman hit the water, his legs once more turned into a tail.

Before Donut was able to resurface this time, Simmons closed the cover of the tank.

When he passed by the window of the tank, he could see Donut floating in the middle of the water. He had his arms crossed and his cheeks were puffed up with air.

Donut's signature pouting face.

Simmons mentally apologized for his rude behavior at the sight and quickly ran back up to his room.

He had done all of his assigned tasks for today. He flopped down on the bed in his room and let his thoughts wander.

He had seen Matthews and Bitters today. They were still happily ever after in their coupledom, just as they had been since their first day officially starting to see one another.

Although Bitters never seemed to grow tired of telling everyone that he had to force Matthews to accept his newfound happiness, something that the empath would comment back with that Bitters only bragged about that because it was the only thing he had actively ever done because normally was the other young man was oh-so-lazy.

Soon enough, that dispute would turn into their usual bickering which Simmons would promptly tune out.

He always had a very strong suspicion that both himself and Grif looked and sounded rather similar whenever they were bickering.

Immediately upon thinking that though, he shook his head to get rid of the thought entirely: that was a particularly idiotic comparison.

The next point his thoughts wandered to was the recent discussion he and Donut had—barring the other's usual innuendos.

He really was working pretty hard.

Maybe he should try to relax once in a while. The idea seemed even more like a sound one since Donut was actually the second person to give him such advice.

Maybe he should really try to rely on his friends more and let them help him with his daily tasks if they really wanted to do so?

He still wasn't sure if that would be remotely okay or if it would be at all a welcome question to any of them, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to suck it up and see what happened.

His cheeks again began to burn hot at that last thought.

Argh!

He really shouldn't talk too much with Donut, that guy could turn any discussion into something really awkward...

Sighing, Simmons got up.

He would take the evening off for once but until dinner in three hours, he would learn and prepare for the college classes that were going to begin after the holidays.

Taking his laptop with him, he left his room and wandered over to the library where he would have the quiet he desperately needed to study in peace which would hopefully help him be able to focus properly.

What Donut had said earlier refused to let go of its hold on Simmons' mind though. He constantly kept going back again and again to dwell on their discussion.

Which led him to realize that despite his intention with going to the library in the first place, he was staring at his laptop screen without really writing or learning anything.

He was dwelling more on the stuff that Donut had said instead.

That he should take leave every once in a while, that he should celebrate his marks with the people who had helped him through all of his studying and course preparations.

But who had helped him, really?

Grif definitely had, and Kai too…but who else?

He couldn't really think of anyone else save for Kimball, Carolina, and the Grif siblings.

So if he could get one or more days off, he could maybe go celebrating with Grif.

Hadn't Grif wanted to go to Hawaii during his summer leave together with Kai?

Maybe Simmons could take some days off and go with them.

Simmons sighed again for what felt like the umpteenth time that day and got up from where he had been sitting, taking his laptop with him as he left the library.

He went to see Kimball first.

To his great surprise, the leader of the Sanctuary granted Simmons leave for a few days without any hesitation or debate. She apparently had actually already been contemplating forcing him to take some days off herself as she had been having valid concerns about his mental and physical health in light of Simmons' tendency to overwork himself.

Luckily for both Kimball and Simmons, he had seemed to reach the same conclusion before she had been forced to outright order him to do so.

His concerns about leaving his duties undone, she only smiled at him reassuringly about.

She told him that everything at the Sanctuary would be fine and that his duties would be taken care of even without him being around for a little while.

He really didn't need to carry the weight of everything on his own shoulders all of the time.

It was a huge relief in a way for him to be able to hear that directly from the leader of the Sanctuary herself, much to Simmons' own surprise.

It helped him to know for sure that he was a valuable member of the Sanctuary still no matter what, but that he should feel more confident in knowing that despite that he was also allowed to leave for some days from time to time whenever he might need to do so without worrying constantly about what would happen in his absence.

After all of these things had been discussed, Kimball made a quick phone call so that Simmons could also get a seat on the flight that Grif and his sister would be taking. She even managed to get the seat right next to them for the redhead.

So the only thing left to do was for Simmons to go and inform Grif that he could accompany them.

While walking back to his room, he gnawed on his bottom lip and thought of the best possible ways he could tell Grif about all of these sudden developments.

Much to Simmons' dismay and just plain luck (he couldn't decide between the two and figured it was a combination of both), Grif was just out of his own room with his sister just as Simmons was about to enter his room.

"Yo, Simmons! You good?" the wolven seemed to notice the slight uneasiness in the young male.

"I—I'm good. A—and you?"

"Hey, I have holidays right now." Grif replied with his trademark smile, "I'm always feeling good whenever I'm on holidays."

Simmons smiled at that, "Right. You're going to Hawaii, aren't you?"

Since he had the opportunity to do so now, why not just take it and tell Grif? It wasn't like his nerves could get any worse.

"Yep, finally going back for holidays. Although I can't go back for too long. It's still too dangerous for us." Grif responded, his face darkening at that last remark.

"Hey," Simmons began, rubbing his upper left arm uneasily, "Didn't you tell me that I should come with you to Hawaii once?"

"Actually, yes." Grif answered, suddenly observing his discussion partner with much more attentive eyes at that question, "Why?"

"I asked Kimball for some days of leave to celebrate my good marks from college." Simmons admitted, feeling even more nervous now that he was telling Grif all of this than he had been during the impromptu planning stages for everything recently, "And I organized all of it so that I could possibly go with you to Hawaii, to celebrate a bit with you and to also thank you for your help."

"Neat!" his eyes lit up with happiness, "So you're really coming with us? I'll have to tell Kai later! That would be so cool if the three of us went to Hawaii together!"

As Grif exclaimed that last part, the wolven extended his arms as he did so as if he was about to embrace Simmons in light of his surprising onslaught of joy at the idea.

Luckily, or perhaps rather unfortunately in reality, he ended up not actually pulling the other man into a hug.

Simmons was a bit sad about that, truthfully. He didn't let that show or say anything about his odd sense of disappointment just then, instead he just smiled happily that his surprise had worked out so well.

"But," Grif began, the confused expression on his face showing that he was contemplating a possible flaw to Simmons' logic in regards to why he had set everything up as he had with his leave in the first place, "Why do you want to thank me exactly? I didn't really do anything to help you."

"Well," Simmons smiled sheepishly at that, "You helped me just by being around and you always calmed me down whenever I was about to snap."

The young redhead explained further, a pink blush dusting his cheeks, "That was the best help you could haven given me during that period."

"Okay…" Grif still looked rather confused by the whole notion, but he didn't say more about it, "I'm glad I helped you out then."

"I would be more than happy if you could just drop by and take a nap nearby from time to time in the upcoming months, whenever I'm studying." Simmons admitted shyly, figuring it was the best time he had to voice that type of sentiment and request given the general flow of the conversation just then.

"Whenever I have the opportunity to nap, I'm in. Doing nothing to help is the best kind of work you can have."

A broad smile exploded on Grif's face at the request before he grabbed Simmons' hand and dragged the beet red and spluttering redhead down the hallway with him, "Let's go and tell Kai that you're coming with us now. She'll be so excited!"


	14. Chapter 14

It was already getting to be rather dark which meant that the moon would soon rise and bathe everything in silver light.

The beeping sound of an approved access code resounded throughout the halls of the quiet Sanctuary and three figures entered, each one carrying a huge suitcase.

They silently shuffled into one of the building's wings.

The young redhead of the group allowed Grif to directly go to his room for once. Simmons already knew that putting away the stuff from the wolven's suitcase would fall to him later on anyway.

Shortly after pulling out the spare mattress for the Hawaiian, Simmons left to go find Kimball.

Knocking on the door to her office, he entered the room only to see her sitting at her usual spot in front of her desk.

"Good evening, Simmons. It's good to see that you're back safe and sound."

"Yes, I'm glad too." Simmons smiled at the greeting, "I just wanted to ask you if there had been any issues while I was gone."

The leader of the Sanctuary quickly contemplated the happenings of the previous week in her head before responding, "Actually, yes."

Kimball motioned for Simmons to sit down just then, "Katie is working on a suit for you which will also turn invisible when you do. She would like to test it in about a month." she informed him, "Please check with her for the exact date, all right?"

"Okay." Simmons agreed, already thinking deeply on the new information he had been given.

Jensen was a tinkerer. Ever since she had come here, she would tinker and work on stuff.

Most of the equipment she handled would ultimately blow up, somehow even worse and more spectacularly whenever she would involve cars or driving in her efforts…so, yes, it went without saying that Simmons was legitimately curious and more than just a little terrified at the notion of finding out if this suit of hers would work out or if he would end up getting blown up along with it.

Kimball's low coughing drew him back. He smiled apologetically for being so distracted.

"Secondly, we have a new guest." she told him when she knew that she had Simmons' full attention once more, "His name is Felix. Please try to fill in the rest of the information for the database later. We only know his age so far and that he's a subspecies of the Diacom." Kimball frowned slightly before adding with a hint of concern in voice, "His anger fits tend to get sadistic, so please be careful when you do go to complete his file."

Simmons nodded at that, "I will try. If you'd allow it, I would like to take North with me for that as a support."

"No problem." From the look in her eyes, she seemed to think that was a good idea, "I'll leave it to you to organize everything then."

Simmons nodded again and waited patiently for the next point.

"Thirdly, since some weeks ago Abnormals have been disappearing for unknown reasons. The Freelancers and Wash are currently investigating the cause, but they might need your IT skills for further inquiries on the web." Her tone and expression became deadly serious at this point.

"Abnormals are disappearing!?" Simmons quickly went on the alert at that, somewhat panicked at the news, "Which ones?"

"All kinds of different Abnormals: Diacoms, a wolven from the Grif Clan, empaths, telepaths, those with invisibilities, fire breathers, and many more. There are even unconfirmed rumors that whatever is causing the disappearances managed to get one of the members of the Church Clan called Epsilon." She frowned, looking more than just a bit disturbed at recounting the information herself, "It's quite mysterious, and we have no idea as to who is behind it or why. All we currently know is that this is not a normal occurrence whatsoever and that Abnormals are afraid to talk about it. Besides, we don't know if those I had mentioned earlier are all of the missing Abnormals or if there are even more we haven't heard about yet."

Simmons' expression turned stern.

He knew a few members of the Grif Clan, foremost being Kai and Dex. But there was also their mother to think about. Their dad had died defending their place from another dominant Alpha male, which had caused Grif's mom to leave her pups for the new Alpha male wolven.

During their holidays, they had learned that those two had also separated, the Alpha staying in Hawaii, while their mother had apparently moved north somewhere to build up a new life for herself away from the clan.

Nobody knew where she was exactly.

"I will start with my research tomorrow after interviewing the guest." Simmons assured Kimball, rather eager to help with the investigation if he could.

"Yes, please." Kimball agreed before adding with gentle firmness, "For now you are released. Please have a good night's rest."

"There's something more." Simmons started, observing Kimball's reaction as he continued, "While we were on vacation in Hawaii, someone was following us."

He frowned at recalling that himself, "I don't know if this relates to the reports of Abnormals disappearing, but we should probably be careful anyways. Whoever the follower was they didn't reveal themselves, but Grif noticed them several times."

A dark expression appeared on Kimball's face as she listened to the update, "Thank you for the news, Simmons. I will make sure to inform the other inhabitants tomorrow to be more careful until this unknown threat is gone."

"Yes. Thank you, Kimball." Simmons stood up, only to pause before leaving in order to ask another question, "Would you mind if I was the one who told Grif about the possibility of there being a hijacked member of his clan?"

She shook her head in response, "Please, just be careful. We cannot afford someone leaving and putting himself in danger just to find a relative."

"I will make sure that doesn't happen." Simmons reassured the woman, "That's why I won't tell Kai. Besides, I doubt very much that Grif would leave the Sanctuary no matter what reason he might have to do so. You know how lazy he is."

Kimball smiled, observing the slightly smiling redhead before her, "Right, I had forgotten about his easygoing nature."

"That's one way to describe his lazy nature in a friendlier manner." He joked before becoming serious once again, "Well then, I should get going. I am guessing that tomorrow will be a long day."

"Yes, although you do know that you have been cut short on your usual duties for the moment except these ones I just gave you?" she asked him, wanting to make sure Simmons knew that well before overworking himself anymore.

"I know and I'm very grateful for it." he told her, "I think this whole research thing will take some time since I will need to write a passing algorithm and make sure that it will find out what we need for our investigations."

"Very true, but I know you're capable of it." Kimball's tone was a reassuring one, "I wouldn't have assigned this task to you otherwise."

"Uh, thank you very much." Simmons muttered, his face once again beginning to flush red.

Both of them bid their goodbyes and Simmons left the office to wander back to his room.

As he was walking back, he tried to sort out his thoughts and put together some well worded sentences to explain to Grif what had happened exactly without making him want to leave the Sanctuary in order to search for his missing relative.

Simmons knew that Grif didn't have a very strong bond to the rest of his clan except for Kai and their mom, so he didn't really think that the other man would leave the Sanctuary for anyone else.

So long as it wasn't clear who exactly had disappeared, Simmons doubted that the wolven would go out and search for the hijacked victim.

Upon entering his room, he could see that Grif was still lying on the mattress.

"Hey, you stuck to our agreement and stayed on the mattress. Good boy." The redhead gently petted him between his ears which caused the wolven to mumble, though Grif couldn't hide the glare he sent Simmons' way when the other mentioned that he was a 'good boy.'

He wasn't really angry about it, however, as the glare was more of a 'seriously, Simmons!?' one than anything else.

Simmons smiled apologetically at that, again gently petting the wolven. He had sat down beside him, Grif lying over him like a furry blanket in the process.

He liked the way Grif would to that.

It made him feel safe and secure, like nothing bad would be able to get to him when they were sitting together as they were.

"Grif." his furry ears twitched when Simmons called him, "Would you listen to me about something for a moment? I mean, just listen and not fall asleep halfway through it. I would appreciate your opinion when you can change back."

Those words made Grif lift his head and look at him curiously. It was rare for Simmons to really require his attention on anything and not just for needing someone to be around and more or less pretend he was listening to his rambles.

"And in that vein too, please promise me that you won't do anything you might regret later." Simmons continued, "Such as leaving the Sanctuary on some kind of self-made mission, okay?"

The wolven looked both confusedly and curiously at the redhead at that last remark, waiting for him to continue.

Simmons let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding until then, "Just promise me, okay?"

After some moments, Grif sighed and nodded his head in response.

When Simmons nodded back, the wolven laid his head back on Simmons' lap to listen to what the redhead needed to tell him.

Whatever it was, Grif knew that it had to be important.

At least to Simmons.

"During our holidays…" the redhead began, scrambling for words a second later. He honestly didn't know what to say now that they were sitting together like this.

All of his carefully chosen words were gone.

He plowed through after a moment regardless though, "People…Abnormals disappeared. The only thing any of them had in common is the fact that they had an abnormality. Those with invisibility, Diacoms…many other different types of people disappeared too."

Grif looked at the redhead attentively at this announcement, waiting for him to continue when it looked as if Simmons had paused.

"One of those who had disappeared was a different type of Abnormal too. A wolven."

Grif's head shot up, looking at the redhead with wide eyes.

Simmons lifted his hands in defense to help him calm down, "We don't know who it was who disappeared yet. Just that it is someone from the Grif Clan." he told him, "This is why I wanted to inform you about it before you heard it from someone else. To have you promise me that you will stay here."

This time, a curious spark lit up the wolven's eyes at Simmons' comment.

He sighed and continued trying to explain his actions, thinking all Grif wanted was more of an explanation, "It's dangerous outside, Grif. People are disappearing. I don't want you to disappear and fall into the hands of whoever is doing this."

He looked at the doorway leading out of his room just then, "Which is why I didn't tell Kai. She would leave and try to find the wolven on her own which is simply way too dangerous."

Simmons turned to Grif imploringly, "Please, you two just stay here and stay safe. The freelancers are already investigating it and I'm sure they will be able to get everyone found and taken care of."

Grif still looked at Simmons with wide eyes, his expression unreadable.

This was a new development for the redhead as he normally could read Grif's expression easily, no matter if he was in his wolven or human form.

"I know you can't tell me what you are thinking right now but I hope you could maybe tell me it tomorrow. But even still, please don't leave." Simmons' face turned slightly red again as he continued, "I need you around to help me with my studies at the very least. I don't know if I would be able to get through the second term of college at all if you weren't around."

He paused, before adding a little quieter, "Besides, I would be really worried about you if you did leave. So please just stay here, okay?"

There were some very long and tense moments before the wolven eventually nodded and laid his head back on Simmons' lap.

"I will take that as a 'yes' then." Simmons mumbled, smiling slightly at his interpretation of the motion.

Feeling around on the bed for his blanket and pillow, he laid down next to the wolven and observed Grif sleeping there quietly.

He couldn't fall asleep himself even a few hours later, unfortunately.

Too many thoughts ran through his mind.

Thoughts that weren't really organized in the slightest, which was pretty uncommon for him.

They were an unsorted jumble in his mind. They were clear enough to him at the time he was aware of them, but he wouldn't be able to recount them back to someone should they ever trying asking him about them later on.

So the redhead got up and sat at the laptop resting on his desk in the meanwhile, beginning to write the algorithm.

Kimball had sent him an e-mail with all the information they had already gathered. He had read all of it and made a list about the people who had disappeared for sure and those who they thought had possibly disappeared.

In the end, he had a list of about ten people who had disappeared for certain and a list of just as many people where it wasn't quite certain yet if they had also gotten hijacked.

While the algorithm went through the whole internal system of the Sanctuary and the internet, Simmons studied the files on the new guest they had.

Felix.

He couldn't put a finger on why it was but something about the guy rubbed Simmons the wrong way already.

He knew Diacoms. They didn't tend to have sadistic anger fits.

Instead they would only snap under pressure and then cook everything with the microwaves they would send off from their hands.

Which meant it was always better to not get too close to an angry Diacom, especially if you didn't want to get boiled alive from the inside out.

But sadistic tendencies was a trait he had never heard of in combination with a Diacom's anger fits.

Either this was a new subspecies as Kimball had theorized, or there was something else going on here.

And either way, the whole matter involving Felix rubbed him the wrong way as a result.

He shot off a text to North, asking him if he had time around three in the afternoon as Simmons didn't want to be alone with this guy.

North would have known the truth anyway once he got close to Simmons later on that day, so the redhead preferred being honest right off the bat with his concerned over lying and getting found out later.

It was always better to have the trust of the freelancers instead of their wrath.

A mumble drew Simmons out of his thoughts just then.

Grif was standing beside him, looking from Simmons to the computer questioningly.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep and decided to do some work for tomorrow." Simmons admitted with an apologetic tone to his voice, "Maybe I can sleep in a little bit longer in the morning to make up for that."

Grif began wagging his tail, panting happily at the prospect of sleeping in longer with Simmons.

The wolven suddenly shuddered a second later.

Simmons noticed the slight change: how Grif's hackles raised and his whole body began to shudder.

Looking outside, Simmons' growing suspicions as to what was going on was confirmed.

The moon was about to set.

There were still around four hours until the sun would rise, but it was already time for Grif to change back.

Moving over to the suitcases he had dropped beside the desk, Simmons searched for a clean shirt along with some clean boxers and a sweater.

A low whine came from the wolven when his form began to shrink and become more human.

Simmons recalled that Grif had once told him that changing was always rather painful for him. Over time, you would get more used to it but that didn't mean you wouldn't still go through pain when changing.

Sitting on the mattress Grif slept on when he was in Simmons' room, he waited for the wolven to change back completely.

Grif had walked over to the mattress once more and laid there to change back.

When he had changed fully back, Simmons handed over Grif's clothes while making sure he sat with his back to the wolven.

He did this not only to not get an eyeful of Grif's naked body but also to hide his deepening blush.

Why the fuck did he have to blush like a madman at the idea of Grif being naked, anyways?

It wasn't like he would get a boner or something just by seeing Grif like that.

"I'm decent." Grif sounded rather amused when he made his announcement, "You can turn around now, prude."

"I'm not a prude." Simmons squawked indignantly at the wolven's commentary, "I'm just displaying something akin to manners, perv."

"Uh-huh, which is why you turned beet red too."

"Hey jackass, not everyone has such a low limit of shame when it comes to nudity." Simmons snapped, his back still turned to Grif as he crossed his arms.

There was a short silence following that heated exchange before Simmons felt a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, you had asked me what I think about that stuff you were talking about earlier?"

Simmons nodded. His curiosity was piqued at the sudden shift in conversation and that caused him to turn around to watch the wolven.

"I won't go searching for this wolven." Grif told him, surprisingly serious, "You know I don't have that much connections to the clan. We're pretty much outsiders to them. So I won't risk my life for them since they don't give a shit about me."

Involuntarily, a smile spread over Simmons' lips at Grif's spoken confirmation of his earlier promise.

"To your other thing." Grif was still uncharacteristically serious given this train of topic, "I think something's up. I don't know exactly what is going on, but I think there's someone out there extremely interested in Abnormals and whoever they are…they probably want to use them for bad purposes."

"Sounds logical to me. That could be another aspect I hadn't even considered up until now." Simmons agreed, taking his blanket from the mattress.

He hesitated slightly before getting up, "Would you… Uh… Would you mind if I would stay here?"

"This is your room, genius." Grif once again looked amused at Simmons' question, "You don't have to ask me for permission."

"No I don't mean here in the room." Simmons was becoming more and more embarrassed now that he had brought the subject up, "I mean here. On the mattress."

Grif blinked several times as though it took him a bit longer to process just what it was that Simmons had actually been asking, before he nodded in response.

He laid back down on the mattress, leaving enough space for the redhead to lie down next to him.

Simmons gnawed at his lower lip, not really noticing that Grif was still waiting for him to lie down.

"Hey, what's up?" his friend finally asked.

"I… There's something more…" Simmons muttered, wringing his hands uneasily in the process, "I don't want to ask you for even more though. I've already asked you for enough."

"Spill it." Grif coaxed, still observing the redhead from his lying position.

"I… wanted to ask you if you would join me tomorrow." Simmons began, nervously, "I need to put a new guest in the system and something about him rubs me the wrong way. I—I would feel safer if you were around."

Grif looked skeptical at that, "I could just lie there and sleep?"

Simmons frowned slightly at his question but acquiesced slightly, "Maye not sleep, but you could slack off still."

"Sounds good to me. I'm in." Grif seemed nonplussed by the whole situation once he realized he wouldn't be required to do much of anything.

Simmons still gnawed at his lip before adding, "I also asked North to come along." he informed Grif, "As I said before, something is very strange about this guy and you're a good observer. So if you catch anything strange going on with him, could you tell me?"

"Maybe." He shrugged.

Simmons sighed, knowing that Grif had been way too agreeable for too long over everything for there not to ultimately be a catch, "What do you want?"

Grif grinned, "There's a movie I wanted to watch. Pacific Rim."

Simmons heaved a sigh once more at the obvious bribe, "Okay, I will get the movie then and make sure that we'll have the movie room available and I'll watch it with you."

"Neat!" Grif's face lit up with anticipation, "I'll keep an eye on the guy then."

"Good."

Grif closed his eyes with his trademark smile splaying across his face before saying, "Can we just go back to sleep now? I like to spend my nights napping instead of talking until my head starts to smoke."

"You're such a lazy-ass." Simmons replied with a low laugh, but he laid down and snuggled with Grif under his blanket.

"And you're a fucking nerd who's panicking over bad grades when you're about to end college with Summa cum laude."

Simmons smiled faintly at that, noticing that Grif actually managed to say summa cum laude without stumbling over the words.

"And you wouldn't care even if you're about to fail at something." He responded.

"Hey, I am who I am." Grif smiled again.

"Yeah… you really are." Simmons muttered, closing his eyes and already starting to drop off.

He only noticed a slight shifting beside him as Grif moved closer and made Simmons snuggle even more against the wolven's broad chest.

This time, he didn't care. He was simply too tired to over process things at the moment.

At least, he tried to tell himself that was the reason anyways.

Right now, being hugged to the wolven's side was a nice sensation. He felt safe and sound being here with Grif, which was the real reason why he didn't fight the wolven's actions.


	15. Chapter 15

It was frustrating!

Infuriating!

Annoying!

To put it simply: the whole situation drove Wash absolutely nuts.

A guy had suddenly appeared at the Sanctuary three weeks ago, asking for shelter as he was afraid of the recent disappearances of the Abnormals.

And, all right…it was perfectly plausible that he might actually have been afraid of that given how unsettling the situation was in general, but Wash didn't believe him.

Something about the guy rubbed him the wrong way.

He was too sly, too sure of himself, too collected to really be afraid, too cocky, too… cold.

That was the word that best described him, now that Wash was thinking about things more.

The guy seemed cold.

He was cold and calculating, yet also incredibly sadistic when having a fit.

Which happened often.

He had also heard Simmons' own growing suspicions about the new guest.

They'd had a meeting some days after the redhead's return where Simmons presented them with the results of his internet researches into the current mystery.

Fifty different Abnormals in total had disappeared so far. Or were confirmed to have been hijacked.

They still had another list of just about as many missing people though who they had no idea for certain yet if they had simply run away from where they used to live, if they had gotten hijacked themselves, or if they had simply been killed by some random criminal for money or because they had inadvertently triggered fear in the souls of 'normal' people.

Simmons had also told them during the meeting about his suspicions regarding Felix, namely that he didn't think he was really a Diacom.

Simmons even went so far as to say that Felix wasn't even perhaps really an Abnormal.

Although Wash couldn't think of any way to fake the abilities of an Abnormal himself, even if one were to alter the DNA of the subject in question somehow.

But he agreed with Simmons that something was off at the very least with this guy.

His appearance at the Sanctuary coincided with the Abnormals disappearing just a little too well for Wash's liking.

Maybe it was truly because Felix was in fact afraid, but even him having the knowledge to be fearful about what was going on would mean that he was something of a higher-up amongst the Abnormals since most everyday folks going about their lives didn't know a lot about the people disappearing yet beyond vague rumors.

And besides that, being a higher ranked part of the society for Abnormals usually meant that other Abnormals would be well at hand to guard him from getting hijacked.

There was also the fact that a Diacom would never be able to get into a higher-up position because of their bad tempers.

While normal people could have something of a short fuse, Diacoms had something more along the lines of a contact fuse or even worse.

So something was definitely off with this guy. Everyone from Freelancer was sure about that, as well as Simmons.

The thing was… that wasn't the only problem he had with Felix.

There was another problem with him too.

And this particular problem made Wash fucking furious.

He would love to throw a fit right now over it.

York and Carolina were already used to teasing him mercilessly about this whole problem in general so it wouldn't really change matters too much if he did just go ahead and do so.

And who could blame them for that, really?

He was behaving like a fucking jealous high school girl.

All because he was jealous.

He couldn't do or say anything to argue against that.

He was jealous, okay?

This whole matter was a trait rather common in werecats. Although he sometimes cursed this particular character trait of his kind.

It was Friday evening, and both he and Tucker were returning together with Junior from a school production Junior had a role in.

Although Junior had only had a side role as a villager, Tucker couldn't have been more proud of his kid.

Wash could see that he was very proud of his son just by watching their interaction. Tucker was showering him with accolades, while Junior was beaming at his dad's praise.

Wash was giving Junior a ride on his shoulders as he listened to the boy chattering excitedly about his role and telling them both about the production again and again.

Although they had seen it themselves, they both listened to the excited explanations the young boy gave.

Luckily for Wash, Junior wasn't any bigger or heavier because otherwise he would have some serious troubles with staying on his feet as the boy was flailing around whenever he tried to illustrate emphatically with his arms and hands the things he was describing.

Such as explaining how big the monster was, or how long some schoolmate's nose was (they had seen said schoolmate as well, and in Junior's defense he honestly did have a really long nose).

Wash was doing okay with trying to keep his balance and listen to Junior as they entered the hallway.

Wash had his hoodie on with his tail hidden under the sweater along with the hood masking his ears from view.

He would soon be a year older and would celebrate his birthday. And maybe, just maybe, Wash would be able to change into a human form completely then too.

It was always a bit different from werecat to werecat, but most of them found themselves being able to change completely when they were around the age Wash was now. Give or take a few years.

They were just about to enter the wing the three of them had their rooms in when Wash heard some steps approaching them.

He recognized who the steps belonged to and felt annoyance bubble up in his chest.

The annoyance turned into fury the moment the Korean-looking guy with tons of piercings and tattoos walked around the corner with his usual cocky smile.

His ears turned around and laid flat on his head without Wash really noticing that they had done so reactively.

What he did notice was the annoyed twitching of his tail suddenly as he felt it against a stripe of skin as his shirt slipped up.

"Hey, Tucker! Hey, Wash! Hey, Junior!" Felix walked up to them casually and regarded the three of them, though his eyes lingered on Tucker's body longer than Wash would have liked.

He bit back a snarl, putting Junior down when he began wiggling on top of his shoulders and started to demand getting put down on his own feet again.

"Hey, Felix! What are you doing here?" Tucker was way too enthusiastic in his greeting for Wash's liking.

His facial expression turned even sourer at the exchange.

"I just saw you guys coming home." Felix explained, looking curious, "Were you out?"

"I had a school production this evening and they came to watch it." Junior was beaming at getting to talk to someone else about his fun event.

"Oh, really? How was it?" Felix's eyes were practically glued to Tucker's body now.

Wash's tail twitched again, his eyes turning so cold and hard in the process that he would probably have been able to cut steel with them right about then.

"It was fucking awesome! Junior was great!" Tucker raved about the production they had just come from, "You should have seen him!"

Wash silently asked himself why Tucker hadn't just taken Felix with him then instead if he was getting this enthusiastic in simply retelling events to the other man.

"It's a shame I didn't have the time to come even though you asked me two weeks ago. But the appointment was pretty important."

Felix's eyes landed on Wash, observing his reaction to the statement he just let out.

Wash trained his expression to be neutral and to hide any telltale sign from view. It would only give Felix more chances to possibly egg him on if he revealed anything.

When Felix realized that he wouldn't get any other reaction out of the werecat than a blank expression, he trained his eyes on Tucker once more before looking over to Junior and aptly listening to the story the changeling was now excitedly telling him.

It was the same story that Wash and Tucker had heard him tell minutes before, and no doubt it would be the same story he would tell everyone else who listened to him about the production in the foreseeable future.

Though Wash suspected that the monster would get bigger and bigger every time Junior retold the tale.

"Yeah, he really was fucking awesome. He should have earned the main role in the play: he was that good an actor!" Tucker added in when Junior ended his retelling, causing the young boys chest to swell with pride and happiness even more.

"It's really a shame then that I couldn't be around to see it. But I hope there will be other times when you will have a school production, Junior?" Felix had turned his attention to the young boy again.

Wash was boiling inside with rage at this point.

"I will be having one next year!" Junior was already bouncing with anticipation at the prospect, "Will you come see that one?"

"Of course, Junior!" the Diacom-blend ruffled Junior's hair.

Wash would have loved to have batted away Felix' hand just then.

"Neat!" Junior was grinning.

"Okay, Junior, but now it's time for you to go to bed." Tucker cut in after checking his watch.

"Aw, Daddy, please can't I stay up a little bit longer?" the young changeling tried to coax his dad into agreeing through a combination of pleading and puppy dog eyes, but Tucker stayed adamant.

"Nope… you've already stayed up way longer than normal, sport." he told informed his son, "Now, march off and brush your teeth." Tucker ordered the last part with a stern expression on his face that left no room for further debate on the matter.

Junior walked away with a sullen expression to get ready to go to bed.

The three grownups stayed there and waited until they saw the young boy close his room's door.

"So, Tucker." Felix began afterwards, "You have any free time now?"

"I have nothing going on once Junior goes to bed." Tucker looked thoughtful, "Why?"

That was a lie!

Tucker had promised to spend time with Wash following that, but obviously that was something quickly forgotten about when Felix asked for his attention instead.

"I wanted to ask if you would like to go have a drink with me after that."

"Sure, I can." the Incubus seemed happy at the prospect and that annoyed Wash to no end as the other man turned to him hopefully, "Hey, Wash, could you put Junior—"

"No, I can't." Wash cut in coldly, now fixing Tucker with his steely gaze.

Tucker was confused at what he thought was the sudden change in Wash's demeanor just then, taken aback by the werecat's brisk reply.

"Uh, okay?" he shrugged, trying to act nonchalant despite that, "Whatever, dude, I just thought you might be—"

"I'm not playing Replacement Dad for your kid just because you want to go fuck around with someone. Our agreement is that I put him to bed only when you're not around." Wash's voice became even colder, if such a thing were possible.

"Uh, okay, dude. Whatever." Tucker blinked several times, still struggling with trying to understand Wash's unexpected reaction as he turned to other person standing there as well, "Sorry, Felix, but you heard him. I have to put my kid to bed first. So if you could just wait about fifteen minutes?"

"Sure, no problem." the Diacom-blend replied casually, shrugging.

He only smiled at Wash slyly when Tucker walked away to his and Junior's room.

"You better not harm a hair on his head or you're a goner." Wash's response was immediate at that and very to the point.

Felix's only reply to that was a broader smile before Wash walked away, very much fed up with the whole situation.

Upon entering his room, he slipped out of his clothes before turning into a cat.

His habits had changed since he had come here.

He would often sleep in his human form now, but at the moment Wash preferred to be in his cat form as he felt too vulnerable somehow currently to fall asleep in his human form.

Tucker's behavior actually hurt him.

The Incubus had eaten not too long ago which made his courtship behavior in regards to Felix even more annoying.

Tucker was behaving like a high school girl around their crush.

Well… maybe that was the explanation behind Tucker's current behavior.

Which would mean that Wash was out of the loop for having any potential relationship with the Incubus.

To be honest, Wash highly doubted that Tucker could be loyal to anyone. He was an Incubus, after all.

That meant that he would always be on the lookout for a possible feeder.

Wash would be constantly on edge if he was ever involved with him in any way beyond friendship, his instincts always screaming at him to rip whatever person Tucker might consider as a feeder to pieces.

Great...

His luck was just fantastically great.

With a growl, the white kitten rolled himself up into a furry ball and tried to sleep.

He knew this wouldn't work out.

Some days later, North caught him following another meeting they'd attended.

Wash had been avoiding Tucker like the plague and was pretending around everyone else as if this was perfectly fine.

"Hey, Wash." the other Freelancer said in greeting before looking at the werecat quizzically, "You okay?"

"Yes." Wash replied shortly, simply wanting to get back to his room.

Unfortunately for him, he was held back by his still very much unconvinced and observant friend.

"Then why are you avoiding Tucker like he's infectious?"

"I'm not avoiding him." Wash replied, just as curtly as before.

"Uh-huh, sure. Which is why you are always leaving rooms when he enters them, walking away really quickly whenever he so much as heads in your direction, and are ignoring him completely." North stated dryly, crossing his arms and starring the shorter man down.

Wash knew given the other's stance just then that he wouldn't be getting away from this interrogation until North had his answers.

"And so what if I am doing those things?" Wash decided to try going on the offensive instead of simply defending, "That would be make it my problem and mine alone, wouldn't you agree?"

"Maybe, but not if you're moping around all the day in front of everyone else and Tucker looks like a kicked puppy every time you give him the cold shoulder." the sniper explained.

Suddenly, North stopped voicing his train of thought just then as a look of realization flashed in his eyes.

A smile spread over his lips as he continued, "I guess I can figure out what the problems are." he told him, "This has to do with that Felix guy and the fact that you have bonded yourself to Tucker, right?"

Wash's lips became a thin line at that, his ears almost vanishing into his blonde hair as they pressed down firmly to the sides of his head in order to visibly display his annoyance.

After several minutes of nobody saying a word, North finally nodded his head to indicate to Wash that he was off the hook and that he wasn't going to be saying any part of what they discussed here to anyone else.

"I noticed that Tucker's after that guy too." North informed him quietly, "Something seems to be attracting Tucker to Felix. But I don't think there will ever be more than a passing fling between them for Tucker to get fed."

"He went out two weeks ago for that." Wash retorted angrily.

"Oh..." North's expression turned into something akin to sympathy at that news, "And now I am slowly starting to understand more of the matter at hand then."

Wash only growled in response before he turned around and left.

North knew better than to call after him or follow.

The werecat would either hit the gym or stroll around in the neighborhood as cat given his current mood. He needed time to himself to ponder over things.

North could only sigh at the way things had turned out.

The Abnormal decided to leave for dinner just as someone called out to him in greeting.

"Hey, North."

Biting back yet another sigh upon recognizing the voice given the exchange he had just had with Wash, North put his best smile on his face before turning around to face the Incubus.

"Hey, Tucker. How's it hanging?"

This was going to turn into a great evening...

The Incubus huffed in response, crossing his arms over his chest when he reached the telepath standing in the doorway to one of the lounge rooms scattered throughout all of Sanctuary.

"Oh, things are going fucking awesome! I could just about explode with fucking happiness right about now!" Tucker ranted with a very obvious sarcastic tone to his voice as he paced up and down the room that North had just led him into.

The Freelancer sat down on the couch, patiently observing the Incubus and waiting for him to start explaining exactly what Tucker had meant by that.

"I don't know why, dude, but Wash has been behaving strangely lately." Tucker began with his rant no less than a minute later, "He's ignoring me, he's not answering any questions or he's just letting conversations die whenever I try to fucking start them, he walks away whenever I walk into the same room…"

He sighed at his complaint trailed off and concluded by shrugging his shoulders in a helpless, frustrated gesture.

North could see with how he had deflated just then that Tucker was obviously fed up with the situation.

"I have no clue what is going on, but maybe you know what is up with him?" the Incubus muttered, looking over at North with an almost pleading expression on his features.

The telepath decided to pause a little bit longer than necessary and let the Incubus struggle just for a moment.

"I may know what is going on, but are you really sure that you don't?"

Tucker huffed with barely contained annoyance at that far too cryptic remark, "I wouldn't have tried talking to you about this if I actually knew what was up!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms up in anger, "The only thing I know is that he's been avoiding me and didn't even think it was necessary to inform me that Junior has obviously decided he would rather sleep over at Wash's than in his own bed!"

"Wait a moment, Tucker," North interrupted the other man's ranting momentarily, holding his hand up, "He did contact you to say that Junior had gone over to sleep at his place. I was there. Your cellphone battery was just empty when he did."

He sighed with a surprisingly patient air given the situation he now found himself in as he asked, "Have you even bothered checking it until just now?"

Tucker dug out his phone, seeing that it was indeed switched off.

An embarrassed expression appeared on the Incubus' face but he didn't say a word.

"See?" North started again, that same gentle air about him as he did so, "He wrote you a text that Junior had gone over to visit him because he had a nightmare during the night and you hadn't been around when he woke up from it."

He smiled, "Junior was afraid just then and went to the person who he trusts the most after you."

Tucker decided that it was still for the best to not say a word in an attempt to save whatever face he still had in this recent turn of events, letting North continue to explain what had really happened.

"Which is why you found him in Wash's room later. Wash wouldn't logically go searching for you as he thought you had received the message earlier." the Freelancer informed him, "That you showed up and behaved like a madman didn't really help the situation any for either, you, Wash, or Junior. They both were as confused as you were over everything and your outburst didn't make matters any better for Junior in particular. He doesn't know who he can trust anymore."

When the Incubus wanted to argue at that, North kept Tucker from letting out so much as a peep in response with a suddenly very pointed glare thrown his way, "Don't even try to tell me that he can trust you at this point in time, Tucker. You're his dad, but unlike in the years before now Junior hasn't see much of the fatherly love you used to give him."

He carried on, not even responding to Tucker's flinch at that last remark, "You're out almost every night since you began to ditch Wash for this other guy. Junior doesn't get his traditional goodnight kiss anymore either from you or from Wash. You know how hard it is for a kid to be left all alone at his age, always wondering exactly what it was he might have done wrong to be punished in that way?"

Tucker pressed his jaws together tightly instead of replying, his lips forming a thin line.

North could empathize with Junior quite a bit.

He had been in a similar situation when he and South had still been young.

Their dad had always wanted a girl, never a boy. That was why South had been allowed to do everything she ever wanted while North was always overlooked in the past.

He had to always look after his sister given that but no one ever tried to do the same for him. His parents had always ever only seen South when the two of them were growing up.

He had been angry about that at first. Furious even.

But as time passed, he had come to accept that fact and soon started to find his own way in life.

He didn't even get that upset that his parents didn't show up at graduation ceremony when he finished school as his sister's ceremony had been more important to them since she had gone to a better school. It had been a private one, while he had gone to public school.

This was the reason why the two siblings had a strong bond but yet often fought with one another. South could understand his behavior at times but was mostly annoyed by his constant attempts at acting like a mother-hen to her.

In reality, perhaps he should have resented his sister or at least his parents for how he had been treated, but perhaps this was a sentiment he simply wasn't capable of feeling.

He wasn't able to feel any animosity or resentment towards his sister for always being the one sibling that was preferred, and he wasn't able to hate his parents for always overlooking him either.

North decidedly pushed these memories away for the moment, focusing instead on the matter at hand again.

Tucker was gnawing at his bottom lip, obviously already starting to process the things that North had told him in regards to the way his son must be feeling. The telepath could tell that the Incubus hadn't really been considering his son's feelings when it came to his actions recently, except the ones that he could see readily displayed on the boy's face.

"So do you understand now why Wash is acting so pissed?" North asked a bit dryly, "You haven't really been fair to him. To be perfectly honest, you have been acting like the world's biggest dick."

North could see how Tucker's lips again formed a very thin line at his statement.

No one liked having a mirror pointing out their characteristics that they themselves didn't like as if those traits were constantly on display in a hard-to-avoid advertisement.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't explain why he's been acting so pissed lately." Tucker grumbled sullenly in want of any other comebacks.

"Perhaps, but I am sure that he must have told you already about the special trait that both werecats and werewolves share?" North asked.

"Uh, maybe, but I wasn't really listening. I just know that I wasn't really allowed to flirt with him." Tucker admitted a bit sheepishly.

North let out a sigh once more and rubbed his temples.

"Okay, I'll go from the start then." the telepath muttered before taking a deep breath, "The trait I spoke about that both werewolves and werecats equally share is bonding. Whereas wolven tend to bond so strongly that they can't ever break their bond, werecats can still have their bonds broken. This is what is happening with Wash right now." North explained, keeping an attentive eye on the Incubus.

"Wash trusted you. He trusted and liked you so much that he had already began bonding to you several weeks ago. You were always together, you were always having fun together, and you were even letting him keep an eye out for Junior." North lifted a finger for each point he made.

"Then, you suddenly go on ignoring him from one day to another without any warning whatsoever and start going out with this other guy even though you had already been fed some days ago." North's eyes became hard at that, "Once you began ignoring him, Tucker, he thought that you didn't want him anymore. Werecats are well-aware that others can change their opinion from one day to another."

North took a short break to let everything he had said sink into Tucker's mind before he continued, "Since you were ignoring him, he came to the conclusion that you don't most likely didn't like him anymore. That idea was then further reinforced in his mind once you two had that argument some nights ago about Junior."

Realization slowly seemed to dawn on Tucker then, but he said nothing.

"And since you didn't seem to like him anymore, the bond Wash had formed with you started to disintegrate." North carried on, "Which has led to him ignoring you and avoiding you in order to make the bond-breaking easier on him."

There was a long silence following that. Tucker again started to gnaw on his bottom lip, a contemplative look on his face.

"You now have two possibilities."

North lifted one finger, "The first one is that you make it easy for him and let him break the bond with you completely."

Another finger followed the first into Tucker's line of vision, "The second one is that you solve everything within the next days."

North's face was becoming even more serious with each passing second, "I am warning you, Tucker. Once Wash has broken this type of bond for good, he won't be able form another bond again to someone else."

He grasped Tucker's shoulder briefly and gave him a firm squeeze, "I suspect that you'll be solving everything if you really mean it with him."

Several minutes ticked by where Tucker didn't reply, preferring to stare down at his knees instead of acknowledging what North had said.

North got up to leave the recreation room.

Before he left, however, North turned around to glance back at the Incubus while standing in the door frame, "Think carefully about this, Tucker. And then, talk to Wash if you want to have any chance of possibly being with him." he informed him.

"But you better hurry up. And I would advise you not to lengthen his pain any more than necessary no matter what you decide to do." North's eyes narrowed dangerously at that last part in a not-so-subtle warning before the telepath left the room completely, leaving Tucker to his thoughts.

The following day after Tucker had talked to North, he was strolling absentmindedly through the halls.

What they had discussed the previous evening hadn't left Tucker. Instead, it had caused him to ponder everything even more.

And that made him feel incredibly guilty.

He hadn't been aware that he had been so inconsiderate in regards to Wash.

He liked him.

He couldn't say that he loved him for sure.

He wasn't even completely positives that Incubi were capable of love.

But what he did feel for the werecat was more than just a feeling of friendship for the other man…

Maybe he could try with Wash because he felt that strongly for him.

All the shit they had discussed yesterday were making his thoughts less coherent and more confusing than normal.

Sighing, he knocked on Wash's door only to find out that he wasn't even around.

Just great…

Ever since Wash had started avoiding him, he was harder to find than a ninja.

Well, he supposed that when someone didn't want to be found then odds were good that he wouldn't get found.

Even more so when said person had some kind of fucking special ops training.

Returning to his room, he shot Wash a text asking him to come over whenever he had time to do so because Tucker really needed to tell him something.

Throwing his phone on the bed closeby, Tucker dropped down onto the mattress a second later and closed his eyes.

He had the day off.

Junior was still at school and wouldn't be returning until evening. It was only early afternoon now.

Tucker knew that Wash wasn't working since North had told him that the werecat had a day off today to do some investigations for the Sanctuary's ongoing case into the Abnormal disappearances.

When he opened his eyes again some minutes later, the Incubus noticed that someone else was in his room.

Sitting up, he could see a white cat sitting beside the door that was left ajar to his room.

The feline was slightly bigger than a normal cat would be and had steel grey eyes that seemed to be observing him cautiously.

"Hey, Wash. Good. You're here, buddy."

A smile appeared on Tucker's lips when he got up and walked over to the cat.

The cat in question pressed his ears flat against his skull, a snarl warning Tucker against getting any closer.

The Incubus got the hint and stayed where he was.

"Uh, do you mind if we sit down to talk?" Tucker asked, a bit uncertainly as he observed the cat.

He still had his ears pressed closely against his head and was staring at the Incubus.

When nothing happened for a few seconds, the cat got up and seemed about to leave as Tucker jumped up to try to stop him.

"Wash! Wait, please."

Wash stopped and turned back around to regard the Incubus questioningly.

Tucker rubbed his neck awkwardly, "You know, I'm not really good at any of this."

He rubbed his neck once more in an even more nervous gesture than before, "I… thought about the whole situation last night and I know now that I was wrong." He ranted, "I acted like a selfish dick and was thinking only about my benefit. I can see that now."

He took in a deep breath. He had to just keep moving forward now that had started this.

"I'm sorry, okay? I really didn't mean to make you mad." Tucker explained, running his fingers through his dreads.

"I'm sorry. Again. I can only really tell you that over and over. I'm really, really sorry and I didn't mean to make you angry." he told him, "I really like being with you and I would like to be with you."

He shrugged helplessly following that, "It's just… well, I am an Incubus. I don't know if my kind can truly love or be loyal to someone completely. But if you're willing, I can try. Okay?"

Wash regarded the Incubus for some moments longer before he got up and left the room without any sound or word whatsoever in response.

"Hey, Wash! Wait! Please!" Tucker pleaded, jumping up from his seat and attempting to run after the werecat.

But he already know that he would never be able to catch up to the cat if Wash didn't want to get found or caught.

When the tip of Wash's white tail disappeared from sight, Tucker's head and shoulders slumped down with disappointment.

He had hurried as fast as possible after overthinking everything, and it seems like he was still too late nonetheless.

Tucker sighed and his shoulders slumped forward even more, "Well, shit…"


	16. Chapter 16

Months had passed since Felix had shown up at the Sanctuary and Simmons was still more than just a little cautious about him.

Grif was too, though Simmons couldn't tell if Grif was more or less just being cautious simply because Simmons was or if his own instincts was telling the wolven to be careful about Felix.

Regardless, it was reassuring in a way to not be the only one feeling like that.

Sure, Simmons knew that Wash, North, York, and Carolina were also rather skeptical about this wannabe-Diacom but it was even more comforting in a way to see that his best buddy Grif was also not necessarily feeling okay with the guy.

Walking through the hallways, Simmons could already tell that something was off before he had even taken more than two steps into the meeting room they had set up as their headquarters for their investigations into the Abnormal disappearances.

Everyone around the table were wearing stern expressions on their faces.

York wasn't joking around as usual, Wash had his ears pressed flat against his skull, and Kimball was clutching the table tightly.

Even more to his great surprise, Grif was also present.

For once, not in his wolven form but in his human one.

Simmons closed the door behind him as he was quite obviously the last one needed to get things started given the faces he saw sitting around the table-despite being half an hour early himself in his attempt to try to avoid that possibility.

Kimball didn't hesitate to start explaining what was going on to warrant such seriousness, "Wash and North caught Felix prying into highly private documents and data belonging to our Sanctuary." the frown on her face was becoming much more visible the more she continued speaking, "Unfortunately they weren't able to stop him as he had a partner who was apparently able to turn invisible who also managed to get past our security perimeters. Both this trespasser and Felix managed to get away by getting the jump on North and Wash."

Simmons gulped slightly, his eyes glued onto the leader of the Sanctuary.

"Agent Washington and Grif both searched for them, but their traces disappeared some streets away from the Sanctuary." Kimball concluded.

"I suspect that they had a car waiting." the wolven interjected, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's the most logical conclusion at this point about what might have happened." Kimball summed up before straightening the wrinkles from her blouse momentarily and continuing, "The more pressing problem is that Felix and his partner, Locus, managed to get ahold of exactly what they wanted and they will most likely try to extinguish the whole Sanctuary network now by chopping the head off of the snake so to speak." Kimball elaborated, watching everyone's reactions attentively as she waited a second before reaching her biggest point.

"We need to prepare ourselves for a fight." Kimball's final statement made everyone fall silent in the room.

Everyone, even those who had pretty much predicted that outcome already given the way events had played out, were shocked that Kimball was deciding to fight so readily.

The Freelancers nodded, all of their expressions darkening at the news.

Not much time passed before they started to organize into groups and began to plan how to approach the layout of the house as a battlefield.

The most dangerous inhabitants as well as those who were not able to fight would get evacuated to a safe place that only Kimball and Carolina knew as a precaution in case things went from bad to worse.

The leaders would be organized into three groups.

Kimball and Sarge would lead Dr. Grey, Sister, Grif, and Simmons.

Carolina and Wash would get Caboose, Church, Palomo, and Bitters.

Lastly, North and York would supervise Lopez, a Spanish speaking Minotaur, Donut, Jensen, and a fire-breather named Andy. He was an even bigger asshole than Church with a short temperament who often seemed to explode with his emotions and would literally spit fire when he was having a fit.

These teams would coordinate together and would each take over a different task of preparations along with operating in different sectors of the Sanctuary.

When the attack started, they would retreat bit by bit towards the heart of the Sanctuary which was the sector where the inhabitants lived who needed special housing areas such as Donut who had his seawater tank there that he needed to return to every so often in order to swim and live healthily.

That would be where the final stages of the resistance would take place.

The last stand they would be fighting until either they of their opponents could claim victory.

The only problem with all of their planning and staging was that they didn't know when the attack would start yet.

Kimball had been in constant communication with all of her contacts, awaiting their reports every minute

Simmons went downstairs to the main terminal where he had access to all of the Sanctuary's data.

He began preparing the security parameters for any possible outcome and scenario he could think of. After that, he reinforced the network's firewalls and encrypted all of the data as best he could to protect it from further prying.

When he was finished, he made a back-up of all the data on an external drive.

Kimball had already organized a local courier whom she had already used for several "special deliveries" in the past.

Meaning that the courier could be trusted to pick up the goods and transfer them around the country or the world, often changing the delivery information and processes used for said delivery to blur the trail and make it nearly impossible to track where the goods would be transferred.

He had twenty-seven hours until the courier would show up. He had to hurry.

Hacking code after code within the system, he didn't notice the hours flying by.

Simmons often heard people around him talking about different things. Such as how Wash and Carolina had set up some ambush around the space they had to cover but were also leaving open spaces around there for Carolina to be able to fight them face-to-face.

Or how they had decided to place Caboose in a room down at the heart of the Sanctuary to potentially use his abilities in a sort-of "last option available" situation.

Or how North and York would be using the individual skills of the people in their group to set up ambushes as well as direct encounters to lessen the number of the attackers.

Andy's bad mood could be useful, for instance, as it would cause him to breathe tons of fire if he was pissed enough.

Bitters would be situated around the plants the attackers would have to pass through during their break-in and could attack them with the help of the potted plants, the big oak, and the seedling he had gotten from Matthews earlier. The little guy had grown a lot since then and was eager to help out too, Bitters narrated.

Kimball and Sarge would set up a watch-out perimeter with the two wolvens of their team.

Whenever the enemy made their appearance, the wolvens would catch their scent and alarm the teams in the house waiting to welcome their visitors.

Simmons would get the suit that Jensen had invented for him within the next twenty-four hours. It had already worked pretty well and he had even been able to wear it without getting blown up.

There were just some minor problems that the Luck-eater had to solve first before it was one-hundred percent functional and she was positive that she would be able to manage that.

With the suit making him be able to turn completely invisible, he could use it for specific raids where the enemy wouldn't be able to see him. To get Simmons quickly from one point to another on those missions, Grif had volunteered to provide himself as a ride.

The Freelancers had grinned wolfishly at one another when Grif had announced his plan to play horse for Simmons, he recalled.

The redhead decided to shove that particular recollection aside and focus on the task at hand which was still the network system and the computer back-up.

It was far into the night when Kimball dropped by to check up on his progress.

Simmons was almost done with the back-up. His update of the system was going faster than he had thought, so he would be ready with the updates and the back-up about four hours earlier than he had announced.

"Simmons, are you still working?" she asked.

"Yes." Simmons stretched his sore muscles, "I didn't know how long the updates and the back-up would take and I didn't want to be late for the courier. Besides I doubt I would be able to sleep anyways as I'm too nervous." Simmons explained as a low Ping informed the invisible man that the back-up was done.

He untied the external drives, stuffing them in a well-padded box and giving them to Kimball, "One hundred percent back-up of all the files and the whole systems."

"Thank you very much."

Simmons stood up and stretched again before snatching the suit that he found lying beside him.

Jensen must have brought it at some point during the night without Simmons noticing it.

"After trying on your suit I would suggest getting some rest, Simmons." Kimball advised him gently but firmly.

He wanted to protest that but when he saw the stern expression in her eyes, he shut his mouth and nodded, "Can I ask you one last question?"

This time around, Kimball nodded and smiled.

He let out a nervous breath, "Did you already hear something about the assault starting?"

"The information is still vague." she admitted, closing her eyes in thought momentarily, "My contacts are sure about one thing and that is that they'll need at least two more days before the assault can start.

We can't really afford to sit back and risk an assault happening should the information prove faulty, however." the leader of the Sanctuary informed him, "So you should go and rest. Please take my advice. It could be the last longer rest you could have for a while."

Kimball's expression didn't soften any, and he knew from that and what she had just told him that she must have felt that the information she had received was most likely reliable and correct.

The redhead nodded, "I will take your advice to heart, have a shower, and go to bed. But I will be back on duty no later than by tomorrow morning. If the assault does end up starting earlier than expected, we will be ready for it." he told her, "Either Grif or Sister will alert us to it starting or the perimeters will announce the intruders' presence with a beeping sound. If that doesn't seem to be working for whatever reason, please come and get me."

He knew Kimball would come and get him for the fight whenever it occurred if he wasn't already there for it.

At least they were now the only inhabitants remaining in the Sanctuary. All of the other residents had been evacuated with either very little or a whole lot of protest depending on the individual in question.

Tucker and Junior had ended up getting evacuated too, although the Incubus had insisted on fighting as well and had planned on doing so at first.

Wash had been adamant about Tucker not fighting, however, as the Incubus had no offensive skills nor did he know how to shoot and he wasn't that good with tactics yet. He was getting better on that front all the time, but he still could be a liability out on the field since he was still learning strategy.

North had spoken some words to Tucker following that which was quickly accompanied by a wink on the telepath's part and a flushed-looking Tucker, after which the young Incubus had agreed to be evacuated with Junior.

It was better that way, most likely.

There would be no point to Tucker getting killed and Junior losing his dad.

Simmons went to take a shower and left the showers about ten minutes later, heading towards his room to take a nap.

It looked as if the other people on the teams were trying to get some rest too. There was only a skeleton staff patrolling the hallways now, as well as the leaders of the teams who decided to take turns patrolling.

The same routine was happening with any of the people who were currently awake. Two members of the team would rest and two would patrol.

Grif seemed to have some hours off currently with Sister taking over the patrol around the house.

How could Simmons be so sure that Grif had some hours off?

Because the wolven in question was lying on the mattress beside his bed at the moment.

Simmons could tell that he wasn't really sleeping.

He looked relaxed and had his eyes closed, but Simmons just knew that the wolven wasn't out cold.

The redhead quickly changed into the battle suit: a maroon one piece.

After that, he sat down beside the wolven and gently petted the space between his ears in the way that

Simmons knew Grif liked.

Indeed, the pleased sigh coming from Grif confirmed his suspicions a moment later.

The wolven lifted his head and looked up at Simmons. He could see the contentment in those amber eyes: Grif liked being here like this.

"You really are a lazy slacker. You're sleeping even when the enemy could barge in any second." Simmons remarked dryly with a smirk.

The wolven huffed. Simmons knew all too well what Grif would say if he were in his human form:"I am who I am. Besides, relaxing is important before a fight. For renewing strength and stuff. You should try it too, nerd."

"Yeah, I know…I should try it out too, right?" Simmons muttered, still petting the wolven, "You know what, Grif?"

Grif's ears peeked up and Simmons continued, "I actually might try it for once. There's nothing left to do anyways, so I might as well try this slacking off thing too."

The expression appearing on the wolven's face just then looked almost ridiculous. On a human face however, it would be a blend of disbelief and beaming. The first one followed by the latter.

"I'm going to sleep now and will stay here in bed until I have to go to my shift or the enemy shows up." With those words, Simmons laid down beside the wolven. He huddled in his blanket and closed his eyes.

Falling asleep was easier than he had thought it would be, considering the threat of the enemy showing up was still hanging over them like Damocles' sword.

"Seriously, I will be fine. Those idiots won't kill me." Bitters rubbed his forehead for the umpteenth time.

After he had managed to talk Matthews into leaving, he had helped to set everything up for the ambush and the subsequent fight that would happen afterwards.

It wasn't too late following that when the phone in his room suddenly rang.

It was Matthews.

He was worried and had left the hotel he was living in during the ambush. To not bust his cover, he was riding a bus through half of the town and calling the Dryad from a phone at a random place.

Luckily Matthews have had enough patience to show Bitters how the phone worked.

The Dryad had grown up in the forest without any technology which made it pretty difficult to explain such simple things like phoning someone or flushing the toilet after using it. Or just using the TV to watch a movie or many other 'simple' things people raised around technology might take for granted.

"But what if you won't be okay? I don't want to come back only to find you dead. You—"

"Rick," the Dryad interrupted the empath's nervous rambling, "First, I have already had my fair share of injuries for the next twenty years." he thought about the injuries he had gotten from the thunderstorm when he just had arrived here with a grimace, "Second, I won't die because I have someone to live for and I really want to celebrate our anniversary together next month."

He could hear Matthews splutter on the other end of the line but kept going.

"Third, I still have to settle things with the guy clearing out the forest who is killing and kidnapping all of my friends and family." his tone got stern, making it clear that there was no space for objections on that front.

"I know… I'm just worried…" the empath muttered in a low voice and Bitters felt a little bad about how firm he had been just then.

Matthews had only been worried about him. He had even called him to make sure that he was okay and to tell him that he just wanted him to come back safe and sound.

"I'm worried too, Matthews." He told him in a softer tone this time, "But I will come back safe and sound. I'll inform you as soon as all of this shit's over, okay?"

"Okay." Matthews whispered.

Bitters could tell that he was making a face over the phone even when not having the other young man around to see it.

"Look, when I'm back we can cuddle and I will tell you what happened in every detail." he promised, "Deal?"

"Deal. Just promise me you'll be careful." Matthews replied, and Bitters heard in his voice that he was feeling better after having gotten reassurance from his boyfriend.

"Promise. I'll check with Kimball to send for you as soon as possible when we're safe here."

"Yeah, thank you. That means a lot to me." Matthews was smiling by now.

Bitters didn't need to be an empath to know that Matthews would be smiling after hearing that.

"I know." he let out a reluctant sigh, "But I need to hang up now. I need to go on my shift."

"Yeah…" Matthews muttered, disappointment seeping through his voice at the idea of the conversation having to end, "Stay safe."

"I will. Stay safe too."

"I will. See you soon."

"Yeah, see you."

Bitters hung up when he heard the beeping noise of a dead line.

He sighed, leaving the room for his previously mentioned shift. He only hoped the enemies would show up rather sooner than later.

He wanted to go back to Matthews. He wanted to cuddle and know that everything was okay and they both were safe and sound.

He hated to be away from his boyfriend. Even more so when it was because of a situation such as this. He appreciated it a lot that Matthews had called him so spontaneously. It made all of the shit happening suddenly a lot more bearable than it was before.

After leaving the room he shortly checked with the trees that they were on alert too, ready to help him if he got into trouble later.

Which would most likely happen sometime in the very near future, as they were expecting the attack to happen any minute now.


	17. Chapter 17

_Beep, beep, beep!_

Simmons groaned, the beeping sound pulling him out of the peaceful slumber he was currently enjoying curled against the dark brown frame of the wolven lying on the bed next to the redhead.

 _Beep, beep, beep!_

Ever since they set up the ambush, the redhead and the wolven hadn't separated more than was absolutely necessary.

They were always together because both of them felt safe and protected around the other.  
To Grif, Simmons smelled like comfort. He felt like he was safe around the other boy.  
Simmons felt safe around the wolven. The huge shape of Grif either in human or wolven form made him feel safe and protected. It made him feel like he could be himself when he was around him and like he didn't have to feel frightened from whatever threat the world may throw at him.

 _Beep, beep, beep!_

Goddamn it! What was that?

As he blinked his eyes open, he could see Grif standing in front of the door.  
His hackles were raised and his ears perked up, indicating he was alert and prepared for the potential for some sort of threat. His body was tense, no muscle in his body apparently able to relax at this point.

 _Beep, beep, beep!_

Simmons' brain booted up more and suddenly he realized what the beeping sound meant.

The perimeter alarm! The attack was starting!

Adrenaline immediately shot into his veins, making his pulse increase to astronomic heights.

Shooting up into a standing position, he tiptoed over to the desk and took out the pistol Carolina had given him some days ago when she taught him how to shoot. Luckily he was a rather fast study and had been able to learn to control his aim rather well, reducing his error ratio to a minimum.

He still wasn't able to hit a bullseye with every shot, but he was at least able to hit a target and disable it a bit.

Coming to a halt beside Grif, Simmons was about to open the door when he noticed the questioning glance of the wolven standing beside him.

"You want me to ride on your back?" Simmons managed to rearticulate his question before it could get anymore awkward than the whole riding on Grif's back already was.

Amusement lit up his eyes before Grif nodded back in response.

It was a very human reaction on a wolven and in any other situation it would have looked funny.  
But not now.

Simmons swiftly nodded too, gently swinging onto the wolven's back after opening the door and shutting down the perimeter alarm in his room.

Sitting on Grif's back, he could see that the others were already taking their spots in the wing.

Kimball's voice came on over the radio to inform them that one group of enemies, probably led by Felix, were coming in from the western side. Another group led by someone else, most likely Locus, would be coming in from the eastern side.

Which meant that Simmons would have to deal with the psychotic asshole.

Gripping the other's fur tightly, Simmons let Grif carry him over to the western wing of the house. There were ambushes set up everywhere. Those ambushes would be reinforced by Simmons and Grif starting raids.

He could only hope this would help.

A crashing sound, soon followed by Spanish cursing indicated to Simmons that the fights had already started in the eastern wing and the central entry.

It would only be a matter of seconds before the fight started here.

He hadn't even finished his thought when he heard the first ambush go off.

Those were hidden pitfalls, causing an easily identifiable sound when they were activated.  
The screams of agony and the sound of flesh being ripped apart following that made the redhead want to puke.

"Let's move." Simmons grunted, and Grif broke into a trot.

As soon as they rounded the corner, he could hear the third pitfall. The first enemy soldiers barged around the corner, charging for them.

Simmons jumped off the wolven's back and let Grif attack the men.

The poor guys getting attacked by the angry wolven just then would most likely have a bitten-through throat, causing them to either bleed out or suffocate.

Normally, Kimball would insist on letting as many enemies as possible live.

But right now as they were defending what they all held dear, she didn't show any mercy or ask anyone else to either.

Anyone entering the Sanctuary with hostile intentions had to be killed.

There would be no exceptions there.

Turning invisible, he shot down attackers who somehow managed to bypass Grif's assault.

Simmons hid the gun under a rather loose part of his clothes so that it was also invisible most of the time until he had to use it, so as to not get his cover busted by a gun floating up and down in the hallway.

Grif ran past Simmons, giving him just enough time to jump on his back to take up position at the next ambush: the spring gun traps.

All of them were loaded with armor piercing hollow-point bullets covered with a fast acting poison, which would paralyze whoever they hit if the bullets did not kill them outright until death through suffocation since the poison would ultimately cause their breathing to stop once it had traveled throughout their bodies.

Readying the ambush after Grif and he passed by, he saw the intruders getting killed one after another upon entering the ambush.

Simmons ordered Grif to stay there and to not bite any of the wounded combatants that managed to get through that assault alive. Simmons didn't need Grif to get poisoned too.

Shooting down the ones still alive after that, he could see no signs of steel and orange armor in their midst.

Behind him, he could hear roaring as Sarge ran off with Sister and Dr. Grey to help North and York's team out as Felix was apparently going on a berserk rampage there.

At least, he thought he heard something like that over the radio from Kimball's side.

Although she was the leader of one of the teams, she was in the center of the Sanctuary where the two hallways would meet with the huge entrance door to coordinate the retreat as well as the groups' fighting over the radio.

Simmons and Grif cleared the wing they had been assigned with Grif running towards the center afterwards to help clear out there.

"Simmons to Kimball, do you read?" he asked over the radio just then, frantic to get word out on their progress.

"Kimball here. Come in, Simmons!" her hushed voice told Simmons that she was actually pretty busy.  
"The western wing has been cleared." He told her quickly, "We are going to help in the eastern wing. Sarge, Sister, and Dr. Grey are at the entrance part."

"Sounds like a plan." She seemed a bit distracted given whatever was going on where she was, but it was obvious she had heard him regardless, "Kimball, over and out."  
"Simmons, over and out."

Simmons lifted his hand from the microphone and patted Grif's right shoulder to get his attention, "Grif, we need to get to the eastern wing. They need our help there."

Grif grunted, turning around towards the eastern wing. Turning invisible again, Simmons pulled his gun out and hid it in the long fur of the wolven. As his hackles were still raised, the gun settled into the upraised fur and was perfectly hidden from view.

As they entered the wing, Simmons could see that another invisible person had just managed to kill one of the other Abnormals that had insisted on fighting alongside the Reds and the Blues.

The last soldiers beside Locus fell in that very same instant, however, as Kimball shot them with her Magnum.

The invisible fighter managed to kill some more Abnormals in return before Simmons managed to find a flaw in his 'Abnormality.'

He was not a normal Abnormal. He was more like a chameleon in how his power seemed to work and not able to turn completely invisible.

"Kimball, change the surroundings!" Simmons shouted.

Kimball nodded, hitting the red button on one side of the hall.

They had already suspected Locus would be showing up here and Simmons somehow had the feeling that he wasn't able to turn invisible but was more of a chameleon based on what they had gleamed about his ability from their earlier encounter with him and information from some of Kimball's contacts.

This was why they had put up this particular ambush: the walls in this hallway could change their colors faster than a chameleon being able to change its colors could, as the paint sloshing down from the ceiling now changed color and shade several times every few seconds.

All one had to do in order to detect where Locus was following that was simply to keep an eye out for the little differences in the way a certain part of the wall might look compared to the rest of the hallway.

Simmons actually managed to land a hit on the man's left leg. The attacker went down on his knee with a suppressed groan, cursing lowly.

"Fall back!" Kimball ordered just then, also ordering the other team to do the same.

They had heard that the other team had managed to lessen the numbers of the attackers down to just Felix by then.

The wannabe-Diacom had grilled at least two Abnormals that had accompanied North, York, and Sarge's teams when they had joined up together.

The two groups met in the middle of the entrance and slowly started to retreat as had always been the plan.

"Why are you doing this, Felix? I thought you were one of us!" Kimball barely avoided a hit to her head as she shouted that.  
"One of you? Please!" the orange and steel armored fighter sneered back, "I'm not even one of those oh-so-poor Abnormals!"

"You're not? But how…?" Kimball stopped for only a second, allowing Felix to land a hit on her left arm that broke it in the process. She let out a shout of pain.  
Locus was fighting against Sister, Wash, Dr. Grey, and Sarge as Carolina, Kimball (who was now also having to deal with a broken arm on top of everything else but faring better than a lot of people probably would have in that situation), North, and Grif fought against Felix.

The rest of the team switched between the enemies, trying to even out the odds when one of the teams was having trouble.

"Genetic experimentation! They implanted some genes into my body to see what would happen." He explained, "My friend here, Locus, has a suit based on a chameleon!" grinning like a maniac, Felix motioned over his shoulder towards the other man turning invisible at just that moment as if to illustrate Felix's point.

"You're talking way too much, Felix." Locus grunted, managing to land a shot in Kai's left leg.  
With a pained howl, the young wolven reared up before Lopez took over her position in the fight and allowed Kai to retreat to the heart of the Sanctuary with Donut.

They would regroup there to flee, before letting Caboose out to 'play' a bit with their enemies.  
"You know what, Locus? I don't fucking care! These assholes will get killed anyways so I don't care if they know or not!" Felix crowed, breaking three of Bitters' left fingers as he did so.

The Dryad grunted in pain, plants starting to grow impossibly fast in response to what had happened to their friend in an attempt to at least somewhat hinder the two mercenaries' mobility.

Kimball made a sign with her right hand for the others to retreat as noise further away in other parts of the Sanctuary indicated that Locus and Felix had brought in reinforcements that would be upon them soon as well.

"It still isn't tactically sound to be so talkative." Locus was still berating his partner for earlier, "You know that could cause problems later."  
"Yeah, as if Hargrove would mind us telling our soon-to-be dead enemies about that. As if they're going to be able to tell anyone." Felix sneered back, dodging Carolina's fist with ease while returning the favor by bringing his own to her face and giving her a black eye.

"You never know what might change." His partner was a lot more cautious, "It's an unnecessary risk."  
"Yeah, yeah." Felix didn't seem to care too much about his comrade's concern as he shrugged indifferently, "He won't kill me even if we tell him that we informed a bunch of corpses about his ongoing little project."

Before Locus could argue the point any, he was continuing as if they weren't in the middle of a life-or-death battle, "They're going to be dead soon enough anyways so why not just let them know that we plan to find out the genetic codes of every Abnormal to replicate them for fighting purpose? Really rub it in before the finishing blow."

He looked at the fleeing group disdainfully and with an almost manic gleam in his eyes, "The Abnormals are a burden on society anyways, so I'm not exactly going to be crying any tears over all of them going extinct. I'll even help make it quick, starting with these guys here and then making my way towards those in the research facility in Uptown."

The whole team had reached the heart of the Sanctuary by now, the defenders beginning to flee through the tunnel once they reached it.

Locus and Felix were so consumed by their argument and their confidence in their inevitable victory that they hadn't yet noticed the number of people amongst their enemies becoming less and less, no doubt assuming that any absence was a poor attempt at hiding by this point.

In the end, only Kimball and Carolina were left.

The two women spared a glance at one another, Kimball nodding and disappearing through a door in the wall.

Carolina stayed behind, keeping away every attacker trying to get past the Freelancer and into the escape way.

"You know, guys," her speech was directed towards the two mercenaries and the reinforcements that had by this point completely filed into the central room of the Sanctuary to join Felix and Locus in their attack, "We were pretty certain that you would be showing up. And even if we lose the Sanctuary in this fight, we still have another surprise waiting to take as many of you guys with us as possible."

The heavy slamming of the door behind all of the troops had some of the enemies shooting at the door in response before they could process fully how foolish that might be to do.  
They ended up shooting nothing but steel, causing bullets to ricochet and take out some of their own in an obvious display of friendly fire.

Simmons had some trouble sneaking over to Carolina after shutting the door and locking it behind everyone.

He barely avoided getting shot following that as he ran away as fast and stealthily as possible to avoid anyone figuring out just what had happened with the door closing.

Getting past the enemy soldiers following that was another exceedingly difficult task, however.

They were blocking his way and he couldn't very well shove someone to the side to make a path for himself as he would only reveal his position and make him an easy target to kill.

There was even the possibility that he could simply just run into some random soldier in his attempt to get away. If the guy reacted fast enough to his presence, he could grab the redhead and kill him. Or just hold him still long enough to make it easy for one of his other comrades to kill Simmons instead.

Simmons shuddered at that particular train of thought.

He passed by a rather nervous looking soldier, his gun racing from left to right and then back again. Up and down and up again.  
It was difficult to not get hit by the barrel of the gun or even just get past him without revealing his location.

Simmons was able to turn invisible but a lucky shot could still injure or kill him.  
Invisibility didn't mean that you're automatically untouchable or impervious to harm.

That was always still very frighteningly possible.

Carefully pressing himself against the wall, he tried to get past the last soldiers and make a run for the door hidden just a bit further away from where he was standing just then when he heard Carolina shouting: "You know, Felix, this surprise is a hot one! I promise that you'll be burning up with joy!"

With those words, the phoenix hit the red button beside her and opened the door to the fire elemental's room.

"It's playtime!" Caboose's cheery voice exclaimed from within as a wall of flames shot out of the room that Caboose had been asked to wait in before the attack had occurred.

The first few soldiers in the front room hadn't even been able to see the fire elemental coming.  
They were dead long before Caboose even stepped out of the room.

Desperately, Simmons made a run for the door just then.

He cried out in panic, frantically trying to reach the door before his friend's flames consumed him.

Unfortunately, he only managed to run about half of the way before the heat became too much.  
He knew he couldn't reach the door anymore, just knew it by that point.

There were too many flames between him and said escape route.

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck!_

He had to find another solution here in the room to hide from the flames.  
Even with his mind on the verge of total panic, he was able to remember the only place that could probably help give him some shelter now.

Nerves a tangled knot in the pit of his stomach and his heart hammering in his chest, Simmons climbed up the ladder to Donut's pool.

But before he was even able to jump into the water, what felt like a horrifically hot hammer made of nothing but lava and fire hit onto his left side.

With a pained scream that didn't even sound like it came from his own throat, Simmons fell into the water.

His whole left side was burning and his vision went white for a moment due to the immense agony filtering through him.

Resurfacing, he tried to suck in air through his unsteady lungs but the pain made it almost impossible to breathe properly. He was being consumed by it, he felt like his whole left side would melt away. That the fire that had burnt his skin was still ongoing and would turn the rest of him into ash soon enough.

He felt as if his whole body was getting cooked alive.

Swimming over to search for cover under the pedestal beside the pool, he heard the enemy combatants screaming out in agony as they burned too.

The redhead fought to breathe under the pedestal, desperately trying not to get consumed by his pain and fear. He was struggling just to keep from getting dizzy from the lack of oxygen in his lungs even though logically he had enough space to breathe there.

It was shock that was making that difficult still, a part of his brain told him. And the pain from his injuries.  
He was fighting to stay invisible so no one would shoot at him in their fight with death.

Simmons felt like he was having the worst fever he had ever experienced while he was shaking and shivering uncontrollably all at the same time.  
That wasn't because he was cold, he knew, but because the pain he was in right now was making his body want to shut down.

Simmons had to fight against that.

He couldn't fall asleep now!

He was in water, he would drown if he did that.

All Simmons wanted to do was be able to climb out of here and at the very least see Grif again.

Even if he didn't make it, he wanted that at least.

He needed to see Grif again.

He didn't want it to end like this.

He wanted to tell the wolven that he was thankful for what he had done for him ever since they had first met. He wanted to tell Grif that he was more than a friend. That he had stopped viewing him as that a while ago.

Even if Simmons got rejected on his deathbed, he wanted Grif to know that he was in love with him.

It was stupid and selfish, and probably not the best time to be remotely thinking of that sort of thing, but he couldn't help thinking it all the same, and he was crying not just in agony but with helpless frustration at how unfair realizing what he'd been feeling for so long now was.

He was in love with Dexter Grif, and he probably wouldn't ever see him again.

Carolina was standing in the middle of the room, observing the people dying.  
Given her nature, she was fireproof so to speak so she could stay within Caboose's direct vicinity without getting burned while the others were incinerated within seconds.

During the time that the fire was burning, Simmons could feel the pool heating up.

The water was getting warmer and warmer.

Okay, so even if he didn't get burned alive and there was still the slim chance he could survive his injuries with medical treatment, he was liable to get cooked alive before then at this rate.

Good to have fucking options, I guess.

Simmons desperately clung to some handles underneath the deck as the water's temperature continued to rise—his injury becoming even more painful in the process and his vision spotty.

Fortunately, the deck was made of thick wood as were the handles with everything covered with a thick layer of varnish.

Donut had been adamant about the deck being made out of wood, as metal could emit dangerous substances into the water whereas wood would not.

Just when Simmons thought he couldn't take it anymore, just when he thought that it would be better to just let go of the handle and drown to end the suffering he was in and the agonizing wait for it all to be over… the fire stopped as suddenly as it had started though any relief that might give him and his burned body was not immediately felt.

Everything still felt painful. Everything still burned all over.  
Collecting his last bit of strength, Simmons climbed out of the pool.

He heard distant voices from farther away.  
He knew any enemies were gone by that point given what he had just been through, so logically those voices must be from his allies.

Simmons couldn't bring himself to care either way.  
It was a struggle just to stay conscious long enough to crawl a bit further away from the pool.  
He had trouble unclenching his fingers and curled up on the deck in a ball on his right side.

It was an instinct, curling up like that to protect his body from further injury (though even just air on his skin at the moment was causing bursts of pain to flash behind his squeezed shut eyelids), and he didn't feel like he could move any more than he already had besides.

He just wanted to lay there and wait for someone to find him.

If they never did, he could just lay there and wait for the Grim Reaper instead to take him on the last journey he would ever make.

Simmons couldn't tell anymore if he was visible or not.  
He couldn't tell if the others would see him there or not.

He didn't have enough air in his lungs to call out even a hoarse whisper for help.  
What he knew was that he was in a really, really bad state right now.

His whole left side felt like it was still on fire.

He could feel the skin forming huge blisters there, could picture it coming off in huge pieces.  
His bones felt like they were burning along with the rest of his insides straight into ash, and both his arm and his leg were immobile.

He opened his eyes slightly to try looking at his injured hand at least and he saw nothing but blood-smeared skin hanging off his fingers along with wet, open flesh exposed to the world when normally that same shredded skin should be protecting it.

In some places along his body as he tore his eyes lower, his brain shutting off from emotionally processing that he was looking at his own body to stave off becoming violently ill, Simmons could even see bones and joints moving with blood gushing out of open veins.

He knew then that he would die here. It was a thought that came to him with a detached, alarming sense of calmness.

Somehow he knew that would happen.

He was invisible most likely, no one would find him up here.  
No one would find him until he died and turned visible again, especially since he had no energy to try calling out for help with how shallow his breathing was.

He was just about to drop off in unconsciousness when he heard the ladder squeak nearby.

Black hair appeared in his spotty vision a moment later.

That was the only thing Simmons saw before he closed his eyes and felt darkness surround him, a thought coming to mind about how unfair that was since it reminded him that he wouldn't get to see Grif again.


	18. Chapter 18

Grif had managed to get into the fireproof escape way behind the heart of the Sanctuary that had been constructed to allow people to flee if the Sanctuary ever found itself in a situation like it had here.

He noticed that something was off though.

Someone was missing.

He noticed, or more accurately, didn't notice the oh-so-well-known scent of Simmons anywhere close by.

His stress and panic level shot through the ceiling immediately at the realization.

"Kimball, where's Simmons!?" he found the leader of the Sanctuary a second later, his question a frantic one that was rather uncharacteristic for his usual apathetic mannerisms.

"He went out to close the door so that the enemy soldiers couldn't flee." If Kimball took notice of the change in his behavior she didn't comment on it, though she was a bit preoccupied at the moment as the next phase of the plan went into motion, "He will come over to hide here soon."

"But he hasn't!" Grif practically screamed out in the exact same moment that Caboose's excited shout echoed through the room outside the escape way, followed by the intense heat of his flames bursting through the space.

Even with the shielding in the escape way blocking most of that from them, the heatwaves coursing through the center of the Sanctuary just then still caused sweat to form on everyone's foreheads.

The screams of agony that followed made the blood of the people hiding in the hallway freeze in their veins. Not too many people there had heard such horrific screams before.

But there was a well-known voice in the corridor underneath the sound of those screams too…

"Simmons!"

Grif felt his whole body starting to shift and change into wolven form when he realized what Simmons not being there must mean.

He had still been out there when Caboose was let loose on the soldiers.

Which meant that one of those screams could have been from…

Panic was blinding Grif to everything at that point. All he wanted, all he desperately needed was to find Simmons.

He needed to make sure he was okay, he needed to…

Kai huffed beside him, muttering something under her breath which sounded suspiciously like "Yeah, sure, the nerd isn't your mate. Who are you trying to kid, you dumb shit of a brother?"

After what felt like an eternity, his panicked and instinctive shifting stopped which allowed Grif to adapt his human form again.

Simmons was most likely burnt badly, he knew.

So appearing in his wolven form could possibly endanger his favorite redhead even more if he was too delirious to recognize him, or if he needed someone to call for help or carry him.

Grif couldn't think about Simmons possibly being worse off than that.

It wasn't even a remote possibility.

Not for _his_ Simmons.

He'd find him and get him help, and then he was going to fucking yell at him for being a reckless idiot and making him worry so much when it was supposed to be the other way around in their relationship!

Pulling over a sweater before carefully walking out of their hideout, he could see that Carolina had brought Caboose back to his room and was blinding the glass there to make sure that Caboose wouldn't see the destruction and death him running around had caused.

He never meant for any of the destruction to happen that came as a result of his uncontrollable abilities.

Caboose would more than likely have a mental breakdown if he ever realized that he had killed around fifty people simply by wanting to go out and play.

None of them wanted to do that to the sweet-natured and innocent-minded Caboose, so they would often hide just how immensely dangerous and destructive his powers were from him.

Looking around, Grif couldn't see his nerd anywhere.

Why the fuck wasn't Simmons turning _visible_ again?

Simmons' scent hanging in the air currently was faint, as if it was getting washed away or was being buried under an overwhelming stench of burned flesh.

Grif fought the fear gnawing at his insides at that, knowing the only way he could help Simmons at all was to keep a clear enough head right now to track exactly where he was.

He wasn't going to stop until he had found him, no matter what.

He had to make sure Simmons was fine. That he would be okay and they would get the chance to argue about stupid stuff more that always put a smile on both of their faces.

He was going to fucking live on that old mattress in the nerd's room when all of this was over and done with.

He didn't care how much Kai and the others might tease him for it or if Simmons tried protesting it more than he usually did when he found the wolven already in there napping.

That's just what the dumb nerd got for making him worry!

He somehow managed to find Simmons' scent despite the difficulty in doing so and followed it to Donut's tank where he could see water dripping off the edge of the pool.

The water hadn't been there before as it would have evaporated during Caboose's "playtime" earlier if it had been.

Which meant that someone or something had to be up there.

Simmons!

Panic rose in his chest at the thought.

Simmons hadn't informed the others where he had been during the last stage of the plan and even now hadn't come to see any of them even after Kimball had made sure that the area was clear and everyone could gather safely once more.

Something was off.

Something was _terribly wrong_ here.

Beyond the wetness where it shouldn't be, Grif knew that something had happened to Simmons because he could smell the overwhelming stench of burned flesh in this area.

Mixed with the faint smell he knew by heart to be distinctly Simmons' own.

It was the stench of Simmons' flesh burnt.

His heart nearly stopped beating at the realization.

But he had to press on. He had to know for certain.

He had to help Simmons!

Climbing up the ladder with an uneasy feeling in his stomach, he soon saw a huge puddle up on the deck.

It was a mix of water and blood on the wood beside the pool.

A strange silhouette was also imprinted in the nightmarish puddle.

Which was something that never happened if there wasn't an object hindering the water from resting normally.

It was an invisible object that soon began to flicker into view.

Simmons!

Grif could only see the redhead shifting into visibility. He was shifting in and out of sight repeatedly.

It looked like Simmons couldn't control his body cells anymore, which Grif knew only ever happened when Simmons wasn't conscious or was on the brink of dropping into unconsciousness.

"Simmons?" Grif asked anxiously.

He only received a groan in return.

A groan laced with pain and seeming to indicate only that Simmons wasn't really conscious anymore.

"Simmons? You okay?"

Another groan answered him which caused Grif to wince in pain in turn.

The sound made Grif want to howl because he felt as if he was suffering from the same pain that Simmons felt.

The horribly bleak sound of a mix between a groan and a cry that was being emitted from time to time from the unconscious redhead sounded so pained that it made Grif feel as though he had gotten hurt himself.

And the sight of his injuries when he did finally get a glimpse of them as Simmons continued fading in and out of view…

Grif wanted to howl even more. He wanted to shout and cry.

He felt like throwing up right at this moment.

But he also sure as fuck needed to get help for Simmons.

Jumping down from the ladder, he turned around and frantically searched for someone. Anyone who could help him get Simmons some help.

He wasn't going to lose him. Couldn't lose him!

He started shouting.

"Kimball! Here! Simmons is badly injured! Help him! He's unconscious! I don't know what is up with him, but it's bad!" his voice almost snapped with his panic.

But for once, the wolven didn't care.

He didn't give a shit about wearing his usual lazy expression now or his I-don't-care-mask.

He didn't care that he could easily destroy his image as a lazy slacker now.

He just wanted help for the injured redhead lying on the deck approaching the door to the beyond faster with every moment passing.

Kimball climbed up the ladder shortly to assess the situation, calling for Carolina and Dr. Grey to help her in getting Simmons down.

They quickly got a stretcher and carefully took the young redhead down from the deck. The stretcher was attached to a rope that they used to hoist him down with.

He was in enough pain; they didn't need to intensify it by moving him too much.

Grif carefully let the stretcher down until Kimball and the other two could put the simple stretcher on a hospital gurney.

With that, they took off towards the medical bay.

Luckily the rooms under the Sanctuary's heart were all undamaged and intact which meant that they would be able to start treating Simmons without delay.

Carolina called for York, ordering him to check the electricity and make any necessary reroutes if some wires happened to be damaged or molten.

The ghost quickly disappeared through the wall, searching for any short-circuited wires.

Soon, they had proper electricity again which allowed Kimball to perform a proper surgery without any delays.

North and the other Freelancers began treating the less severe wounds that any of the inhabitants had gotten during the fight with rudimentary first aid since Kimball and Dr. Grey were understandably occupied with Simmons' more critical condition at the moment.

This included wrapping up Kai's gunshot wound as the bullet had luckily gone through completely, setting Bitters' broken fingers, amongst many other sustained injuries.

Grif, however, laid beside the door to the operating room and waited for Kimball to come out again. He wanted her to just come out soon and tell him that everything was going to be okay.

That Simmons would recover completely, that the invisible nerd would be his old self soon enough and would walk out of the surgery like nothing had ever happened in the first place.

He knew it wouldn't happen, even as he desperately wished it would.

But it was a nice daydream at least, and better than succumbing to the gnawing pit of frustrated helplessness and worry that was growing with every painstakingly slow second that ticked by as he waited.

When Kimball finally came out of the operating room, her facial expression was stony.

She looked like she had aged years within those hours of surgery.

Given how they had felt like centuries to Grif waiting there, he could almost understand why—though he still hoped for better news than what the look in her eyes was indicating.

The others also looked horrible: Carolina and Dr. Grey both look exhausted, and they seemed reluctant to look directly at him.

Their expressions were somber ones that matched Kimball's in a way that made Grif want to punch the wall.

Kimball tried to gently explain to Grif about what had happened to Simmons and that they still didn't know if he would survive given the severity of his wounds.

They had to put Simmons into a coma ultimately, as the coma would cause Simmons to turn visible again and his being visible was the only way to show the full extent of his injuries and make it so that they would be able to treat them regularly.

They would have to change the bandages at least once an hour for the first several days, extending the time of the treatment more and more in the process.

However, as the treatments for his type of injuries were extremely painful as well, putting the redhead into a coma for that part was also the only course of action they could take as the pain would be completely unbearable and detrimental to his recovering body while he was conscious.

The leader of the Sanctuary could only hope that Simmons wouldn't have to be in a coma for too long, as she didn't like having any patients being comatose here for extended periods of time.

She especially didn't like that it had happened to Simmons, someone she viewed as such an intelligent and promising young man.

She told Grif that she was sorry that this was all they could do and that they truly hoped they could wake Simmons up as soon as possible, as everyone at the Sanctuary wanted him back safe and sound.

She also promised Grif that he would be the first person she informed as soon as Simmons was cleared to receive visitors.

In the end, Kimball stated, it was most important that Simmons survived the next three critical days. Such horrific burn stories quite often ended with the burnt victims becoming poisoned with the dead cells from their injuries, leading to them having an extremely high risk of dying from blood poisoning.

After those three days had passed and more, when they knew that Simmons was out of the critical stage of his recovery, Kimball would check with Dr. Grey on the best time to wake him up slowly.

She even promised it to him.

And Grif knew that Kimball never promised something when she wasn't sure she could really stick to the promise.

He tried focusing on that instead of on Simmons lying in a coma, or on his injuries, or the chance of blood poisoning.

He focused on that, and on how Simmons had to get better instead.

Because Grif was too terrified and upset to think about what would happen if he didn't.


	19. Chapter 19

The first thing Simmons noticed after passing out on the deck beside Donut's pool was a burning sensation in his left side.

It felt like when he had burned his hand quite badly as a kid save that the feeling was now engulfing the whole left half of his body.

His skin was tensing and feeling oddly wet as if the wound was weeping. As if he was pressing these afflicted body parts onto a hot plate in the very middle of a pool full of water.

It was a strange sensation really.

He felt hot and feverish, but he was shivering violently at the same time because he felt cold.

Slowly, slowly…he came to.

What he noticed upon doing so beyond the strong pain still in his left side was that he wasn't in his room. He was in a bed, but not his own.

The smell in the room was too clean, reminding him of a hospital.

The logical part of his mind supplied him with the helpful information that he was most likely in the infirmary instead due to being tucked into a bed with his injuries wrapped up in bandages and an IV sticking into his right arm.

He felt his throat as it attempted to make any sort of sound, but the whine he heard didn't feel like a sound he was even capable of producing and sounded foreign to his ears.

It sounded so miserable, so noxious, so…hurt.

Forcing his eyes open, he first saw nothing but brightness.

The blinding light of the ceiling lights overhead hurt his eyes and he had to close his eyes while yet another of those strange-sounding whines escaped his throat.

The floating sensation he had been noticing throughout this entire time became more and more noticeable, since his senses slowly awoke more and more - trying to adjust to his new surroundings and current condition.

He felt like he was floating in water, feeling strangely light and relaxed.

Again, the more logical part of his brain provided him with the information that this was most likely due to the heavy amount of painkillers no doubt currently flowing throughout his system - making him feel dizzy and detached from the world.

Trying to move, he noticed that his body was feeling heavy as if someone had put lead in it. He wanted to move, but he couldn't get his body to comply to the request.

The only thing currently responsive to his mental commands right now were his eyes.

Even his throat was making strange noises whenever he didn't want it to and making any of the sounds he actually wanted to voice seemed impossible.

Instead of again trying to uselessly force his limbs to move, he decided to open his eyes once more instead.

The light that greeted him blinded him just as badly as before, but fighting to keep his eyes open for some moments helped him to get used to it.

The ceiling lights were dimmed, but since Simmons had apparently been out of it for quite some time it was akin to looking directly at the sun when he just woke up since he hadn't been used to any light before.

The first thing he noticed was that he only saw things from his right side vision. His eyesight there was blurry, but he knew that this was normal because he needed glasses.

However, it was very new that he couldn't see on his left side.

Why couldn't he see from there?

Besides, why was he in a hospital bed?

And what was going on with this burning sensation on his left side?

Why wasn't he able to move, and why did he feel like he was probably on the strongest pain medication dosage that was remotely reasonable or healthy to give someone?

He felt his breath quicken and his heart begin to hammer in his chest.

Something beside him began to give off an alarm.

A mumble that was followed by a short growl made Simmons jump (though not too well given his current state).

There was someone in his room.

Why was someone else in his room? Why was he not able to see them?

The soft padding of steps that followed these events combined with a strange clicking noise made Simmons' breath go faster.

Oh no, whatever this thing was it was coming towards him. It would kill him.

He pressed his eyes shut, breathing quick and shallow. Simmons tried to make himself as small in his bed as was physically possible.

Much to his surprise, he didn't get attacked by whatever was making the steps as he heard them leaving the room.

Moments later, the door opened and someone entered.

Simmons still didn't dare to open his eyes, too afraid of what he might see.

"Simmons? It's okay, you're safe. Calm down."

That was Kimball's voice!

Opening his eyes, he blinked away the tears and focused on her face to calm his erratic heartbeat and his shallow breathing down.

"W- W…" Simmons tried to speak, but he couldn't get his throat to work. The only thing that came out was a weak croak.

Kimball seemed to figure out what Simmons was trying to do rather quickly, reaching over and holding a glass of water to his lips.

He sucked in the water eagerly, trying to gulp down as much of the liquid as possible. It was only fitting given how quickly he did so that he choked on it as he was trying to gulp the water down.

Coughing violently, he felt his whole body shake which sent flares of pain up from his left side throughout the rest of his body.

"Slowly, you're overdoing it." Kimball's voice was low and gentle, as though she were talking to a sick child.

When he calmed down, she held the glass to his lips again.

This time, he drank more carefully to try and avoid another coughing fit. Way too early for his liking, the glass disappeared.

He couldn't help but make a whining sound in the back of his throat at that.

Kimball smiled sympathetically, "I know you still feel thirsty, but your body isn't used to so much at the moment. You would only vomit by overburdening your stomach like that."

The redhead waited some moments, already feeling tired and wanting to go back to sleep.

But there was something that prevented him from doing so and kept him up.

When he tried to speak again, his voice was very low and pretty raspy but at the very least it obliged his command this time, "What happened?"

Kimball had to lean closer as Simmons repeated his question. She smiled sadly.

"Unfortunately, you weren't able to make it back to the safe room before Caboose was let loose." Kimball explained, a sad glint appearing in her eyes, "You were burnt pretty badly while you tried to get into the water."

Memories of him climbing up the ladder to Donut's pool to jump into the water appeared in mind just then. Just before he had been able to jump into the pool, a wall of pure heat and fire had hit his left side.

Oddly enough, he also remembered a memory of himself looking at his arm and seeing flesh coming off, with blood gushing out and bones and joints moving underneath.

He couldn't tell if what he believed to be his memories was the reality of what really happened or not given his current state though. Considering that his whole left side seemed to hurt, however, at least Kimball's explanation made sense.

"So I was burned." Simmons summed her explanation up.

"Yes." She nodded.

"My left eye too? I can't see." Simmons looked to Kimball who sat on his right side, much to Simmons' relief.

She made a face as if this question actually caused her pain to respond to before she answered, "Yes and no. Your eye took a lot of damage due to the heat. It isn't burned, but we still don't know how well it will heal." Kimball told him quietly, "We decided to leave the bandage on for a few more days before removing it to check out what damage will be permanent. I hope you can understand why we can't remove the bandage just now."

Kimball stood up before gently covering Simmons with the blanket, "Anyways, you should sleep now. We can discuss what happened and the extent of your injuries when you're feeling better."

She smiled at him reassuringly, "We're all relieved that you've finally woken up. The anesthetic will wear off within the next couple of hours. If you're in any pain, please tell us and Dr. Grey will help you. Okay?"

"Okay." Simmons' eyes already began to feel heavy once more now that he'd at least had some questions answered.

He didn't even notice by then that Kimball had left and gently closed the door behind her.

The next time he woke up, he noticed the pain was reduced to a dull aching and pulsing in his left side. It looked like the painkillers had begun to take hold with their intended effect. He didn't know what time it was, nor did he know which day it was either. Since the fight for the Sanctuary, he had lost track of almost everything.

His body still felt strangely detached, but he felt better than the last time he had been awake.

With a low groan, he turned his head slightly to the right, looking around. He couldn't see if someone was there, but he swore he felt another presence in the room.

"Grif?" God, his voice was still terribly raspy and his throat was dry once more.

"I'm here, buddy." A low voice came from the other side of the space, where Simmons was at least temporary blinded from seeing.

"Where?"

Shuffling was heard around the bed before a chubby figure appeared in his currently restricted line of vision, the round tummy of the figure covered with an orange shirt.

Grif's favorite shirt.

"Here. I had been napping on the next bed over since it isn't occupied." Grif pulled a chair up to the bed, sitting down on it and leaning into the backrest.

"Like usual, you lazy fuck." Simmons grumbled, coughing slightly due to his throat being too dry.

"I am who I am, nerd." Grif grinned before his face turned serious at Simmons' coughing fit, "You okay, pal?"

"Can you get me some water?"

Grif reached over and filled a glass halfway full with the liquid.

He leaned over the redhead, lifting Simmons' head slightly and allowing him to drink.

This time, Simmons was smart enough to drink in little sips and swallow more slowly.

He didn't want another coughing fit like he'd gotten before when Kimball had helped him to drink.

When the glass was empty, Simmons leaned back. His eyes were already starting to feel heavy again, but he didn't want to fall asleep now.

"How… are you doing?" Simmons muttered, his vision drifting in and out the whole time.

"I'm fine. Already back to work. And the Sanctuary is also almost rebuilt. It's even better than before." Grif explained, watching the nerd fondly as he struggled to stay awake still to continue their conversation, "Kimball spared no expenses in order to rebuild it and update everything."

"That's good." Simmons muttered, fighting against the overwhelming urge to sleep.

He didn't want to sleep anymore. He wanted to stay awake to talk to Grif. He wanted to spend time with him. He wanted to enjoy this time together after everything that had happened, not waste it by falling back to sleep when the wolven was around.

A thought occurred to him just then as he remembered the presence he had heard in his room before Kimball had come in to explain what had happened earlier, "Did you go to get Kimball when I woke up earlier?"

"Yesterday?" Grif blinked at the question and shook his head, "No, that was my sister. Why?"

"I thought I heard claws clicking." Simmons muttered, his suspicions on that front confirmed.

Only it had turned out to be the other Grif sibling instead of the one he had thought it was possibly before.

"Yeah, Kai was here. Actually, she was here because she wanted to welcome you back into the land of the living but when you woke up you were afraid of her," Grif explained, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head in a self-made brace, "So she decided she better go and get Kimball before you panicked more."

As Grif explained what had happened, Simmons looked down on the blanket. He felt horribly guilty that he had acted that way towards a friend who had just been concerned about him, "I didn't mean to do that. I was disoriented and didn't know where I was at first."

Simmons had to stop quickly in his hurried, rambling attempt at explaining himself and apologizing to breathe.

Which Grif took as a sign to answer and keep him from plowing right back into something that was definitely unnecessary, "It's okay. She understood why you reacted that way." he assured Simmons, "Waking up after something like that, any of us would be like that."

The redhead blushed slightly, "Would you please tell her that I'm sorry nonetheless? I didn't mean for it to happen. She can come and visit whenever she feels like it again." Simmons muttered, looking at the older Grif sibling almost pleadingly.

Grif snorted, "I doubt she's going to listen to me given her lousy track record with that but I can try."

Simmons smiled at that, "As usual."

And then he thought of a question that his inquisitive mind was incessantly prodding at him to ask, even though a very large part of him was terrified of it and not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

"How…" Simmons gulped nervously and tried again, "How long have I been out?"

Grif's expression turned stony and somewhat… sad? Hurt?

He took a moment before he answered, "About a month."

Following that uncharacteristically curt reply, the wolven looked away from Simmons for a moment as if he couldn't look at the redhead right now.

That made Simmons feel even more anxious and worried.

Why was Grif looking away? Simmons hadn't done anything wrong, had he? Or had he done something and he just didn't remember?

It took some moments for him to process and understand what Grif had just said given how thrown-off Simmons had been by Grif's behavior following it.

He had lost a whole month since the fight for the Sanctuary. When that knowledge sank in, he gasped.

"A month!?" His voice raised in nervous pitch when he asked that.

Grif nodded, "It wasn't possible to wake you up earlier as your injuries were too extreme. As far as I know, Dr. Grey is planning to start reducing the painkillers around now so that you can get onto the normal dosages for them instead of the higher ones you've been given currently because of that."

Simmons nodded, looking down at his hand lying limply beside his body, "I really hope it will be soon. I hate being so disabled." the redhead muttered.

Grif began to grin at that, "I would be pretty happy personally. Napping all the time, what could be better?"

"Having no pain?" Simmons replied, feeling the pulsing in his left side as if to confirm his statement.

Grif's face fell with an expression akin to shame at the realization of how his earlier remark had probably come across given what Simmons had been through.

"Right, sorry." He muttered before he leaned over and offered Simmons another glass of water.

The redhead accepted happily, drinking another halfway full glass, his eyes now really getting heavy.

Before he dropped off completely again, he heard Grif say, "You should sleep now. It's important to rest when you're hurt." He swore when he looked up at him just then that Grif was regarding him with a soft kind of smile he'd never seen the wolven ever wear before, "I will drop by whenever I can when not at work."

The redhead nodded at that, his vision starting to become very blurry, "Don't take too long to come back, okay?"

"Promise."

Simmons felt a warm hand which could only be Grif's on his cheek, a thumb tenderly ghosting over his cheekbone as he dropped off into slumber again.

Just as he did so, Simmons had the oddest sensation in his sleep-addled brain that something soft pressed against his lips.

The third time he woke up, he saw someone else sitting beside his bed.

This time it was an older man, his hair starting to get gray at his temples although his body was as well-trained and fit as ever.

Simmons immediately recognized the man as Sarge who was something like his foster father here in the Sanctuary.

"Sarge?"

"It's good to see you're awake, son." His voice was low, but still carrying its familiar Southern accent.

"What day is it?" He really wanted to know what day it was, he needed something akin to regular routine in his life.

"It's Wednesday." The response was immediate, as if Sarge had been expecting him to ask that from the get-go, "You thirsty, son?"

"Yeah." Simmons rasped out.

He was happy that everyone remembered to give him water once in a while as he still felt way too weak to move.

"I can give you some water, but you have to turn visible, son." Sarge remarked with the glass already in his hand as he uncertainly looked at the spot he suspected Simmons' face to be.

"I..." Simmons muttered, trying to force his cells to turn visible again but shocked to find that it obviously wasn't happening, "It won't work."

The admission was a weak utterance, as Simmons let his head hang helplessly at the realization.

Fortunately, he didn't feel that detached anymore and his limbs felt a bit more under control than some days ago.

Lifting his hand, he managed to lay it on Sarge's and shakily directed the elderly man's hand towards his face. When the glass reached the lips, Simmons indicated with a twitch of his fingers to the leader of his wing that he needed to tip the glass so he could drink.

To his relief, Sarge seemed to figure out what Simmons wanted and followed his lead carefully as if trying not to break him given Simmons' injuries.

When he had enough, he gently pushed Sarge's hand away.

The Diacom put the glass aside, regarding the bandages hovering on the bed.

Simmons thought it was no doubt a very bizarre spectacle to see.

The blanket hovered over something nobody could see with bandages wrapping around something which no eye could find.

"Son, do you remember anything about what happened?" Sarge asked finally, tearing his gaze from the sight.

Simmons took a moment to think over it before shaking his head, "No. I guess that's some kind of defense mechanism of my body to avoid a mental breakdown." He recalled, "I remember closing the door behind the troops. Then, nothing. Until I woke up some days ago."

"I see." Sarge frowned and nodded his head in thought, sighing, "Well, maybe it's better that way."

"Why?" the comment had Simmons rather alarmed and curious all at the same time, "What happened?"

Sarge coughed awkwardly, looking away as if ashamed or just unsure of how to really even broach such a sensitive subject, "I think it's better if Kimball explains it. She treated your injuries after all and saw the real extent of them." He told Simmons.

"I… better go get her." Sarge mumbled, almost jumping out of the chair and leaving the room in a hurry to avoid further discussion.

Minutes later, Kimball came in with a smile appearing on her face when she noticed the movement of the blanket.

"Simmons, how are you feeling?" she asked

"Better I guess. Although I still feel strange." Simmons replied before adding, "And thirsty."

Kimball smiled knowingly, "This is because of the combined treatment of Dr. Grey's abilities and the glandular secretion of a so-called moon dragon." she explained, "It's a rare species of Abnormal, which only reveals itself on a full moon. Its glandular secretion has strong healing abilities when applied on an injury. The only downside is that it causes dehydration as the body needs to process the increased healing speed."

"I see." Simmons nodded his head in thanks for the informative explanation before asking hopefully, "So

I can leave soon?"

"It depends on the healing process. However, I think in a month or two you can leave the infirmary and stay in your room. There you have more possibilities on how to spend your time." She informed him, "Normally, someone who was burnt as badly as you had been needs around six month until fully healed. In your case, we suspect it to heal in two to three months due to the secretion and Grey."

Kimball sighed then, taking the glass and holding it out as she waited for Simmons to guide her. Sarge had obviously told her about the way Simmons could show them where they had to bring the glass in order for Simmons to be able to drink from it.

When he had drunken enough, Kimball put the glass aside and sat there in silence with Simmons.

It was the redhead who started talking again first a few moments later, his mind full of questions.

"What about the scars?" the redhead asked, feeling a strange itching sensation beginning to start on some parts of his body.

"Dr. Grey has a treatment she has already used on several of the burn scars to lessen them." Kimball replied, "Also to prevent them from shrinking up and tensing."

Simmons nodded and upon realizing that Kimball wouldn't see him doing so, he confirmed that he understood verbally, "Good. So in about four to eight weeks I can leave?"

Kimball smiled and nodded, "The sooner the wounds are healed, the sooner you're out of the infirmary. So if you hold still and don't strain the wounds too much, you should be able to leave early," she explained, before something else crossed her mind, "I almost forgot. Dr. Grey said that she would like to examine your eye again tomorrow. I heard from Sarge that you're not able to turn visible?"

Simmons shook his head with a sad expression ghosting over his features, "No, I haven't been able to.

Unfortunately."

"That's probably something very similar to you forgetting what had happened. It's a defense mechanism of your body." She explained in a soothing, comforting tone, "Give yourself time and you will be able to turn visible on your own free will again. Don't stress yourself out over it."

Simmons was again and again both surprised and stunned with how sympathetic and understanding Kimball could be even in such obviously stressful situations.

"Anyways," Kimball drew Simmons' attention back to the conversation at hand, "As she needs to examine the eye, we will have to sedate you to in order for you to turn visible."

Simmons nodded, picking up her train of thought given this new hurdle involving his invisibility, "Okay. So I will be knocked out in order for me to turn visible every time you need to examine the wounds?"

"Exactly," Kimball confirmed, looking to where she suspected his eyes to be from the positioning of the bandages and blanket on the bed as well as Simmons' voice, "Besides those times, we won't sedate you."

Simmons exhaled deeply, the odd itching feeling beginning to get stronger. He lifted his hand and began to scratch over his left side.

"What is wrong?" Kimball asked, having noticed the movement in the bed.

"My side itches." Simmons muttered, scratching a bit stronger.

He was surprised when he saw Kimball's face light up at the news, "That's good." She explained, "Perfect, actually. This means the more shallow wounds on your side are already starting to heal up. I will get Grey to rub some moistening gel on them to lessen the itching."

"Will I need to get sedated?" Simmons asked anxiously.

"No, Dr. Grey will use an infrared camera to see your frame." Kimball told him, "You only have to tell her where she has to apply the cream, okay?"

Simmons sighed, "Okay, that's okay." He told her.

"Could she maybe… do it now?" Simmons asked, starting to squirm as his hip now began to itch too.

This secretion was working wonders, but it was awful at the same time!

Kimball smiled, "I will get her, please try to not move too much or you could rip open the injuries that are the worst burnt."

She stood up, leaving the room before quickly coming back with Dr. Grey in tow.

She was wearing ridiculous glasses which Simmons figured were the ones she needed to see where she had to apply the gel.

Kimball sat down by the bed again, while Dr. Grey turned Simmons with his help onto his right side and started to peel off the bandages over the itching part of his body.

Dr. Grey rambled on as she worked with Simmons mostly not listening as she did so out of force of habit. He didn't want to know some of her more disturbing observations when it came to medical matters and injuries, and she could go on for hours when it came to those topics.

"…So this secretion is pretty damn awesome from a healing stance. Even more-so considering that Kimball acquired the moon dragon from the black market only for you. You should feel honored that she would do something like that for you, Simmons."

But when Dr. Grey made the remark about the dragon just then, he looked up at Kimball. She had her expression schooled into an impassive and neutral mask, but he noticed the slight embarrassment shining in her eyes just then.

"You really did that?" he asked in disbelief.

She didn't answer, but Simmons could tell that Dr. Grey had been telling the truth. He had been living and working long enough here to know her body language and what she was willing to do to help those she had come to care for.

"Thank you." Simmons muttered, seeing how Kimball's eyes widened a bit at that remark and she turned her heard awkwardly to the side.

Simmons knew that she was feeling embarrassed about the whole situation and for doing something she always told the others not to do so he decided to change the subject, "So what injuries do I have?"

Kimball sighed and looked over to Dr. Grey, who interrupted her work to regard the leader of the Sanctuary before taking it up again. She seemed to have given Kimball a non-verbal sign about answering the question, as she began to talk.

"I already heard that you don't remember what happened." Kimball told him, "I won't tell you what happened given that, only what injuries you have. If you ever do remember what occurred yourself, we will be here to support you but I don't want to force painful memories to come back that your mind might not want you to have just yet."

"Anyways, as for your injuries: your left side suffered second and third degree burns. Luckily, no fourth degree ones at least and we didn't need to amputate anything. You had instinctively gotten yourself to safety before your injuries could become even worse." Kimball began to explain, stopping once in a while to give Simmons some time to let the information sink in, "However, your injuries are healing faster than we ever expected given their severity. When you're doing better we will move you to your room, as I already told you."

Kimball moved over, holding something out for Grey.

Simmons looked over to Grey, noticing that they were doing something but not quite at a vantage point to see what was going on from how he was positioned, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, we just applied some of that amazing secretion again and some gel which will lessen the itching." Dr. Grey told him, her voice surprisingly reassuring, "You're holding up pretty well given everything. I'd love to psychoanalyze you if you ever remember what happened again. Or just psychoanalyze you in general. This whole situation could give me some pretty good insight into the mind of someone so severely burned like you were."

"Uh, I think I'll have to pass on that." Simmons muttered, turning back to rest on his back when Dr. Grey was done and looking over to Kimball as she dismissed the batshit-crazy doctor.

"So I'm stuck here for a bit longer?" he asked.

"Yes, unfortunately." Kimball sighed, "It's a necessity given your injuries and your recovery period."

"It's okay." Simmons replied with a yawn, before deciding to voice another thought that came to his mind just then, "If Dr. Grey wants to examine my eye she could put me out now. I'm tired anyways and feel like I just want to sleep for a whole day."

Kimball smiled again, "I will tell her. Rest well, Simmons."

"Yes, thanks." Simmons yawned again, falling asleep just as fast as he had done the days before as his body was still using most of its energy to facilitate its healing and recovery.


	20. Chapter 20

As it is the twentieth chapter, I'm going to post two chapters today :)

Carefully, Tucker opened the door to one of the rooms on the same floor of the Sanctuary as he and Junior were living in and peered inside.

He carried a tray with steaming food on it that mostly consisted of meat accompanied by some vegetables and French fries.

"Wash?" he asked cautiously, not able to see very much at all in the slightly darkened room following peering into it directly from the brightly lit hallway outside.

A grumble came from the bed, indicating that Wash was lying there.

Dr. Grey had ordered him to stay in his human form until the healing of his injuries was over with. If he still decided to change forms against his doctor's wishes and his own best interest for a speedy recovery, she threatened that she would dissect the werecat without anesthetic.

Ever since the day of that particularly colorful threat to coerce him into taking the crazy-but-skilled doctor's advice, the young Freelancer had been moping around and on edge because he couldn't give in to what his instincts told him to do.

"Wash. It's me, Tucker. I brought you some food." Tucker pushed the door open, entering the room carefully and searching the wall beside the door for the light switch.

Luckily, most of the rooms all had a layout practically identical to the other rooms on a given floor. It made it easier to find your way around even in the dark.

Wash sat up on the bed at the sound of his voice, his ears resting flat on his skull and showing that his mood hadn't really brightened any since Tucker had been there last.

"You know I can't eat." Wash grumbled and showed his hands to the Incubus again which were still fixed with splints and bandages.

Tucker sighed, "I thought we had already spoken about this subject. You can't sit here and just eat nothing until you can use your hands again."

Wash's expression turned sour at Tucker's words but the Incubus didn't care. He sat down next to the werecat, careful to not hurt his bandaged hands.

The dreadlocked man put the tray down on his lap and started to cut off slices of the meat before holding a piece of it up in the air pierced on a fork, right under Wash's nose.

He could see how the Freelancer inhaled the scent, a hungry expression appearing on his features as he hastily but carefully took the meat off the fork and began to chew.  
"See? This isn't that bad, right?" Tucker asked, grinning triumphantly.

Wash grumbled something around the piece of meat in his mouth, still making a sullen face. Tucker decided to let it go unremarked, as Wash was definitely more on edge than usual due to his current predicament.

"When do you get your bandages removed?" Tucker asked while cutting the meat into more pieces that were big enough for Wash to eat while he let the werecat continue to chew and swallow the piece he had currently.

"About next week, give or take." the Freelancer replied, "Afterwards, I need to get in some rehab training."

Wash took the next bite when proffered. His expression had softened a bit at this 're always more sullen when hungry, after all.

Tucker knew this well enough from his experience raising Junior. He could be such a little brat (albeit a lovable one still) whenever he was hungry, even though he was still young.

"At least you'll be getting the bandages removed and will be able to do things with your hands again, unlike now."

Tucker waggled his eyebrows in a very obvious flirtatious suggestion as to what he thought Wash should do once he was able to use his hands again, holding another piece of meat out for Wash in the process.

The werecat decided to take the piece without saying anything in reply to that, only rolling his eyes.  
"Bow chicka bow wow!" A huge grin exploded on Tucker's face when he worded his catchphrase, causing the werecat to groan and wish he had said something earlier.

"You're impossible!"  
"Impossibly sexy, hell yeah!" Tucker shouted, tossing his fist into the air above his head with a huge grin.

Wash rolled his eyes again, although he couldn't really hide the smile that formed on his face all the same.

"Anyways. You still haven't told me what had happened to your hands."

It still nearly gave Wash whiplash with how fast Tucker could change from joking to serious during conversations.

Tucker was staring at the bandaged hands resting in Washington's lap, trying to assess what could have might happened for himself.

While occasionally giving Wash more of his dinner to eat, he drifted off to the situation of around three weeks ago. Those were the days right after the assault, when the evacuated inhabitants had been required to stay in the safe houses strewn all over the city until given the all-clear to return.

 _When he came back, he had still seen lots of damages and rubble lying around the Sanctuary even though he knew the reason they had held back on letting the evacuees return was because they had been busily cleaning up the space to avoid anyone having to see more graphic aftermath displays of carnage from the fight that had happened._

 _Luckily for both himself and Junior (as well as everyone else returning), there had been no blood at least._  
 _Kimball had been quick to make sure that the blood was cleaned away before the younger inhabitants of the Sanctuary returned._

 _He saw everyone who had stayed behind to defend the Sanctuary a little while later upon returning._

 _Kai had a nasty shot in one of her limbs, but it was already healing properly._

 _Sarge looked okay with only his ego and pride apparently hurt - nothing too bad though. However, Tucker couldn't shake the feeling after talking with him that something was bothering Sarge pretty badly. He didn't even insult him for being blue like he usually would when given the chance._

 _Caboose was as cheery as always, already living in his room again._

 _Church had moved out and was living with Bitters in the oak during the reconstruction period as his room had gotten damaged during the fighting apparently._

 _In those early days upon returning to the Sanctuary, Tucker did pick up there being something a bit off about the situation as he met with more and more of the people who he had last seen before evacuating._

 _There were people missing amongst them. His friends._

 _The first of his missing friends that he ran into was Grif. He looked horrible. Not only beaten up and bruised, but extremely tired and with deep lines of worry on his face._

 _He found out why shortly afterwards. Kai took over that task as Grif only snapped at Tucker when he asked him about what had happened and disappeared towards his room to "nap." Tucker seriously doubted given how he looked just then that Grif had been able to have anything remotely resembling a decent nap during the past few days._

 _Kai had informed him that Simmons had gotten burned by Caboose, his whole left side terribly injured as a result. They still didn't know if he would survive as he had been put into an artificially-induced coma given the severity of his wounds._

 _The odds for him to survive would increase with every day that passed but so long as he was unable to wake up on his own, they couldn't tell for sure what his chances were._  
 _Tucker could understand after hearing that why Grif was so out-of-sorts and on edge._

 _Having your mate in a coma and not knowing if he would even survive would certainly put some heavy pressure on the alpha-mate of a pair. Knowing that those two had most likely been dating for years now (even though they didn't seem to be aware of that fact consciously themselves, Tucker had seen them interacting enough to know that they were definitely dating) would make it even more difficult for Grif to get used to this new and horribly uncertain situation they were in._

 _The Incubus even suspected that the wolven would most likely die too should Simmons end up not making it._

 _Shortly after hearing about what had happened, Tucker made sure to drop by and check on Simmons._  
 _The redhead was lying in a sterile room, hooked up to various computers and screens, and Tucker had to admit that he looked horrible._

 _His whole left side was wrapped up and his face was paler than usual even, looking almost ashen. Seeing him lying there unmoving had made Tucker frown._

 _That was so unnatural for the nerd. He was always moving, even to just fiddle with his fingers when he was nervous. Having seen Simmons lying there so still for himself made Tucker worried too._  
 _He really could understand Grif's worries even more following that sight._

 _After also checking up on the Freelancers who were helping with reconstructing the building, gathering intel on Felix and Locus to see what they were up to, and helping Kimball with the injured, Tucker had taken off to Wash's room._

 _He hadn't seen the blond Freelancer with any of the others, after all. Asking them about it, they told him that the werecat was most likely in his room and moping around._

 _Since Tucker had first found him there right after coming back, Wash hadn't really left the room except for to go to the toilet or other really important things._

 _Entering the room, he first noticed the thick air inside. It smelled like Wash hadn't aired out the room for days. Considering how disheveled the blond male looked as well, it was most likely that he hadn't._

 _"Dude, do you want to cut the air with a knife in here that badly?" Tucker exclaimed, rushing over to the window to open it._

 _"Actually, no. I wanted to try it with my claws," the Freelancer snarled back, his ears lying flat on his skull._

 _"It sure as hell smells like it." Tucker replied, turning around after opening the window, "Why haven't you opened the window every once in a while?"_

 _"If I had been able to, I would have." The growl in Wash's voice had stopped impressing Tucker months ago._

 _When his eyes landed on Wash again, he could see him sitting there, his ears still pressed flat against his skull and annoyance glinting in his eyes._

 _Involuntarily, Tucker's eyes began to wander and take in the sight of his favorite Freelancer as if he hadn't seen him in months._  
 _Days could become months, okay? Or at least feel like it._

 _When his gaze landed on Wash's bandaged hands, however, the whole moment was ruined._

 _"Holy shit! What happened to your hands!?" Tucker was immediately beside Wash, restraining himself from grabbing Wash's hands and inadvertently causing more pain than he already must be in._

 _Wash, however, did flinch away from the sudden jump Tucker made for his bed._

 _"I was fighting, Tucker. Injuries happen." Wash replied in a matter-of-fact voice._  
 _"Yeah, sure, like bruising or shit. But that," he pointed to Wash's hands just then for added emphasis, "Is something else entirely!"_

 _Wash's face took on the sour note he would still have plastered on it three weeks later just then._  
 _"It's from the fight." he insisted, "You really think you only get away with maybe a few scrapes and some bruises all the time in one? That was no schoolyard brawl, Tucker. It was a real fight."_

 _"Yeah but—" Tucker interrupted himself when he remembered what had happened to Simmons, Grif, Kai, and Sarge as a result of the fight too._

 _This fight had been very different from the skirmishes they used to have during the time he lived here. Extremely so._

 _Much more had been at stake which meant that there were bound to be many more and far worse injuries than those other skirmishes had ever resulted in._

 _He remembered the gunshot in Kai's paw and suddenly he had a mental image of Simmons in front of his eyes._

 _How he was lying on a hospital cot with an IV sticking into his arm and his left side all wrapped up. One of the monitors in the room beeping regularly to indicate a heartbeat. An oral airway sticking out of his mouth, having been fixed to the right corner of his mouth in case he moved._

 _He had looked terrible._

 _"Tucker?" Wash's voice cut through Tucker's dark thoughts, causing him return to the real world just then._

 _The Incubus shook his head, "You're right. It was a fight." He muttered before quickly changing the subject, "Should I get you something to eat? You can't sit here and mope around without eating something. You're going to die."_

 _"But how would I eat?" Wash seemed a bit surprised by the sudden change in the conversation._  
 _"I'll feed you." Tucker stated matter-of-factly._

 _"You'll what?" It was already pretty common knowledge that Wash's voice rose in pitch whenever he was feeling uncomfortable._

 _"I'll feed you." Tucker repeated calmly. Upon seeing the incredulous look still on Wash's face following that, he sighed, "Come on, I did the same thing with Junior when he was a baby. There's nothing to it and I'm not going to be trying anything — really! I'm just helping a friend out here."_

 _He grinned and winked suggestively a second later though because he couldn't help but get one flirty remark out, "Unless you happen to like getting fed. You know—bow chicka bow wow!"_

 _Wash groaned, "If you won't stop being an ass, then starving sounds like the better alternative to getting fed."_  
 _Tucker tried looking mock-offended at that, "Hey, you're mean!"_

 _"And you're an asshole sometimes." His ears weren't lying flat on his skull now, indicating that he was loosening up already. The joyous glint in Wash's eyes indicated the same thing._

 _Tucker then went to get some food, returning later only to feed the werecat as he would continue to do for as long as Wash would be unable to use his hands._

Wash stopped him from giving him anymore food, as he had eaten enough—the action causing Tucker's thoughts to drift back once more to the present.

Tucker looked at him, trying to assess if Wash was telling the truth or not about not wanting anymore food as the Incubus had discovered recently that the werecat could be almost as picky an eater as Junior was at times. When he decided that Wash was telling the truth, he put the plate aside with only some vegetables left on it.

"…It was Felix." Wash muttered suddenly.  
"Huh?" Tucker was so dumbfounded by the out-of-the-blue explanation from Wash that he couldn't come up with any sort of better reply.

"Felix did this." Wash lifted his hands to show Tucker his injuries again, "I tried attacking him in my cat form. He threw me to the ground and crushed my paws with his foot. It took several surgeries to get the bones set back and fixed to heal properly." He sighed at the recollection, frowning, "Which is why my hands are still healing. Normally any broken bones I get would heal within three to four weeks due to my higher cellular reproduction."

"So that asshole did that? I can't believe I thought he could be nice." Tucker groaned when he realized he had been so thoroughly duped.  
"That guy really hates your guts, huh?" the Incubus muttered with a bit lower voice.

Luckily, he had a rather dark complexion and therefore he was able to hide the blush creeping up his face right now due to the embarrassment and guilt he felt for running after a guy like that for such a long time.

He must have been really stupid to have not seen what was really going on there.

"Yeah, kind of. Although I suspect that he was only that personally unfriendly because I always used to interfere between the two of you." A rueful smile appeared on Wash's lips when he thought back to the time when he had tried to talk some sense into the Incubus, only for that to result in the young man becoming even more stubborn about the whole Felix situation since Wash had come across as more jealous than anything else in those talks from how he had voiced his concerns a lot of the time.

When his own feelings for Tucker started to slip into the equation and things were getting aggravated between them as a result due to how well at the time Felix's cover story had been, Wash had eventually just left Tucker to be happy with the strange guy after deciding it was better to not say anything once he realized still trying to do so was only making things worse in the long run instead of better.

Not that things still hadn't turned out that way in respects, but…it could have been even worse depending on how things had played out, he knew.

"Hey, Wash." Tucker's voice cut through his thoughts, pulling him back to the real world just then.  
He hummed to show Tucker that he was listening to him as he examined his bandaged hands.

"Are we… I mean, are we cool? You were rather upset before shit hit the fan," Tucker began rambling in earnest, not really thinking about what he was saying and just speaking any words he felt as they came to him, "I know I made a mistake by trying to run after this Felix guy, and that I pushed you away. I just couldn't imagine Felix being this kind of a jerk. But you knew, and I should have listened to your instincts because—"

Tucker suddenly stopped rambling, staring down at the bandaged hand resting on top of his. It was a stark visual contrast between the white of the bandage and the dark chocolate color of his own skin.

"It's okay, Tucker. Seriously." Wash assured him, shaking his head when the Incubus wanted to reply with something. Tucker closed his mouth, watching him as he continued, "I made mistakes too and my rather complicated nature wasn't really helping anything."

There was an awkward but not entirely uncomfortable silence for some heartbeats following that remark before Wash then quietly added, "Let's just take it slow, okay?"  
"But what about your un-bonding and shit?" the Incubus blurted out, looking anxious.

He knew that Wash had been in the process of un-bonding before and the whole concept of taking it easy when he could lose Wash practically any day now because of that was making him feel stressed out.

Wash chuckled, "I had been before, but you showed clear enough that you were sorry about how things had played out earlier. I wouldn't have insisted on sending you to the safe house with the other evacuees otherwise."

It took a few more moments before what Wash had meant by that clicked with Tucker.

His eyes became as round as his mouth which was forming a perfect 'O.'

There was no sound coming from him just then and Wash couldn't help but chuckle at the rather ridiculous expression the Incubus was wearing.

He asked Tucker after checking the clock nearby, "Shouldn't you be getting ready for your work?"

Tucker followed his gaze, realization suddenly hitting him like a fucking train wreck.  
"Oh, fucking shit!"

He jumped up from Wash's bed, grasping the tray and making a run for the door.

Before he dashed through, he stopped again and looked back to the werecat, "Hey, Wash, would you mind…?"

"I'll go and put Junior to bed, don't worry." The smallest hint of a fond smile appeared on Wash's lips as he answered.

"Thanks, dude, I really owe you." Tucker let out a sigh of relief.  
"Don't worry. It's okay." Wash reassured him before nodding at the door and the hallway beyond, "But you better go now or you really will be late."

"Right." Tucker gave him a quick, awkward, and energetic wave as a sign of gratitude and that he was actually going to depart this time, "See you."

Wash hummed when Tucker disappeared through the door just then, the scent of the other man lingering pleasantly in the room even after the Incubus left.


	21. Chapter 21

Slowly, Simmons felt himself beginning to resurface from the depths of unconsciousness once more.

His side still hurt which meant that the whole getting burned affair was not in fact just a bad dream he'd had. He still smelled the awful scent of disinfectants hanging in the air, indicating that he was still lying in the very same cot as last time in the infirmary.

Over the last few days he had zoned in and out repetitively, not really remembering much of anything about what occurred even when he was awake.

The healing properties of the moon dragon's glandular secretion was fucking awesome, but it was apparently heavy stuff all the same that took quite a toll on someone even as it helped them recover. It emptied your energy reserves almost faster than you're able to refill them through the normal means of sleeping, relaxing, and eating.

Fortunately, he was able to drink a normal amount of water again at least as his stomach had finally gotten used to doing so once more.

Learning that had filled him with a huge sense of relief when he had finally been able to satisfy his thirst properly for the first time since he had woken up. Being able to drink normally helped the secretion in a way due its work better as it increased his healing speed even more and also helped to restore his energy faster.

As he was waking up now, however, everything felt more or less the same as it had since Simmons had first woken up from his coma. He always felt horribly thirsty and tired.

He tried telling himself that even though he still felt that way, on the plus side if the healing should keep continuing at the pace it was he would be getting released within the next four weeks still. His body seemed to be responding well to the treatment even if Simmons sometimes didn't feel as if it was and his injuries were healing faster than even Kimball had expected.

This was a huge relief to him. He didn't care for hospitals in general, even less so when he was required to stay in one as a patient.

It was an old aversion he'd carried with him ever since he was a child.

His dad had always been an asshole, and had forced Simmons to do manly stuff he thought would help "man" the boy up.

Such as signing him up to their local club's rugby team.

That particular unpleasant experience had ended with a broken arm and a heavy concussion on the very first day he went to practice. He'd been required to stay in the hospital, Simmons always on edge while there as he knew he couldn't turn invisible for his own safety at the time. It had been pretty stressful as understandably given his younger age at the time, Simmons had even less control over being able to change his cells from visible to invisible through his own will back then.

When he had gotten out of the hospital a week later, he locked himself up in his room for yet another week to recuperate from his lack of sleep earlier and he gave his dad in particular the cold shoulder. His mom had been able to talk his dad out of the idea of sending him to another club after that, fortunately. Simmons would be given the freedom to choose one for himself.

He had ended up joining the mathletes, much to his father's dismay.

Ever since that day, Simmons had become even less visible to his dad than he already was—invisibility power or not.

His dad had only ever bothered to try "knowing" him when he had thought there was a chance still for Simmons to "man" up, and following his joining of the mathletes he only ever talked to Simmons to gripe and complain to him about any of his subsequent life choices. He would talk loudly and with a constant air of disappointment that his son was more of a nerd than the muscular, sporty, and self-confident prick his father used to be.

Following that day as well, his father started to deny Simmons any pocket money of his own. He had said something about taking the allowance money he used to give to a younger Simmons for doing what he had pressured him to do before to pay for Simmons' hospital bill—though his wording and hard eyes when he explained that made it very obvious it was meant to serve as a punishment.

Simmons had worked at different places during high school to try to save up money on his own instead, only to end up getting fired shortly afterwards from just about everywhere due to having two left hands.

He found a job at a local IT office sometime later on where he would do easy work and his extreme clumsiness wasn't an issue. As soon as they noticed that he was a fast learner and a crack in IT, he was allowed to do more and more jobs at the office which further increased his knowledge about all things computer-related.

However, any positives he had started to create in his life then came to an abrupt end after his dad found about his homosexuality when he caught Simmons talking to his mom about it. She had apparently already known about it and hadn't minded at all, but his dad had come home earlier than expected and had heard the last bit of the conversation they were having and he was certainly not of the same mind as Simmons' mother on the topic.

He was extremely lucky that he had gotten away with his life back then. Simmons had gotten beaten up horribly in the wake of his father's fury, only being saved from worse by his mother knocking his dad out.

She had told him to go to Atlanta afterwards as she had heard about a facility for people like him there, giving him the money he would need to travel.

The first thought that crossed his mind at her statement was that his mother wanted him to go to some exorcist or someone else in order to "cure" his gayness.

But she quickly put that fear to rest by telling him about the Sanctuary.

It turned out that the Abnormal trait of turning invisible was actually something that he had acquired from his mother's side of the family.

She was no Abnormal herself, but her son was one and she contacted other relatives to learn what she could about the invisibility trait as a result of that.

It was only logical given how every so often one of their offspring was born an Abnormal that her family knew of the Sanctuary-Network.

Simmons packed what he thought was necessary for traveling that very evening. Clothes, money, some pictures of him and his mother, and some other sentimental items connected to his mom that he didn't want to part with on account of the memories they held for him-but he packed nothing to remind him about his dad.

Those few sentimental items he had ever owned of his father were still no doubt standing untouched on his desk in his old room, if his dad hadn't decided to transform the room into something else or wreck it in his fury following that event. It wouldn't shock him at all if the man had just thrown them out himself after Simmons had left without any thought or hesitation.

When he left the house, he knew that he was dead to his father after all of this and that his dad was dead to him.

His mom, however, would always still be in his mind — especially after what she had done for him that day.

Simmons hoped he would see her again in the future, that maybe she would showing up at the Sanctuary when his dad finally drove her away too. Although he highly doubted that part of his wishful thinking ever coming to pass, knowing her devoted nature in general.

She would most likely stay where she was, unable to ever leave her asshole of a husband given that but at the very least finally having gained the courage to send her son off to safety.

He missed her, yes, but he didn't have the strong urge to go and visit her. His mother knew he was okay, he had let her know that through a messenger that Kimball had arranged to tell her that upon his arrival at the Sanctuary.

The rest was pretty much history.

Absentmindedly, he rubbed at an itching part of his arm.

The wounds on his side had already closed up completely thanks to the healing powers of the moon dragon's secretion, and his eye was okay too—he was able to see again with both eyes now. His sight was still as bad as always but apparently the eye hadn't gotten anymore damaged.

He took that as a good sign.

The door opened just as he was settling back from his contortions into a comfortable resting position.

"Hey, Gray Guy." Simmons immediately knew that it was Kai even before he looked up at her.

He had only learned recently from Grif that his sister was color blind, which would explain the very loudly-colored dress she always wore after she first managed to turn into a human.

"Hey, Kai."

The girl sat down on the chair beside him, observing the dent in the pillow that she was only able to see instead of him actually resting there.

"How are you doing?" Kai was surprisingly friendly given her usual behavior.

He smiled a bit awkwardly, still not used to the fact that he was still completely invisible as he recovered, "I'm good. My injuries hurt like a bitch, but that's supposed to be a sign they're healing."

"You know, whenever my injuries hurt… I try licking them." She supplied helpfully, "Licking helps with a lot of problems."

Okay, there she was again: the Kai that Simmons knew.

Luckily for him being invisible meant that nobody would see his blushing face.

"Uh, yeah," Simmons coughed awkwardly at that, sitting up and taking the glass of water from the nightstand beside his bed to drink something before answering, "I can't do that as I'm not able to turn. Besides that, I'd rather prefer not to lick them in my case. It would only infect the wounds."

"Huh? How come? I never have that problem." She blinked a few times in confusion, giving Simmons time to answer.

"You have a stronger immune system as you're a wolven." He explained, "I, as a non-wolven, don't have such a positive trait when it comes to self-healing."

"Yeah, wolvens are fucking awesome!" Kai cheered, looking at Simmons with a grin.

"You're right. Speaking of wolven," Simmons changed the subject just then since the thought crossed his mind once more, "Thanks for coming again. I didn't mean to offend you when you were here earlier and I had just woken up. I was just out of my mind and disoriented."

The younger Grif sibling waved him off, "Nah, it's okay. Dex explained to me why you were acting that way." she assured him, "It's fine. The only reason I hadn't come back to visit earlier is just that I was letting Dex be with you whenever he was around so you two could enjoy your dates alone."

Simmons' face immediately turned beet red, "We weren't on any dates!"

Kai scoffed, "Yeah right… you two are totally dating!" she informed him, raising an eyebrow slightly in challenge to any protests Simmons might make on the matter, "Why else would Grif almost have run off into Caboose's fire when he noticed you were in trouble?"

Her voice lowered slightly just then, and she leaned over as if to share an important secret with the currently invisible and bedridden Abnormal, "You do know that we wolvens also tend to change when our mate is in danger, right? He did change."

Simmons didn't reply to that, staring down at his hands in awkward embarrassment with his face feeling as though it was burning so hotly that you could probably fry an egg on it.

"Uh…" Simmons muttered, trying to somehow form a coherent thought once more.

To his great relief, Kai decided to pick up another subject for discussion by this point after having said her piece on the matter, "Have you heard about Kimball going to the black market for you?"

"Yeah, I heard." Simmons replied, thankful for being able to change the subject to something more neutral. Or at least not as terribly awkward as the previous subject had been, "She went to the market to get something to help speed up my healing process."

"Yeah, I got some of it for my paw too. It's already healed." She proudly showed him the scar on her left forearm. The shot had luckily gone through, but it had left behind a nasty scar.

"Looks pretty badass." Simmons told her, smiling slightly, "I'm sure the guys and girls will love it."

"You think? Then I'll be even more of a pussy and dick magnet! Maybe I'll even able to talk the guys and girls into an orgy someday since I'm so damn attractive!" Kai exclaimed happily, rolling down the sleeve of her sweater since it was rather chilly down in the infirmary.

Simmons' face again became a deep shade of red, though it fortunately still went unnoticed by the wolven beside him due to her not being able to see his face.

He decided he would not tell Grif about that latest remark from Kai as he would only freak out and hound his sister about not embarrassing the family and to try to not say such bizarre things anymore.

Keeping Dex out of it was probably for the best for everyone in this case.

The younger wolven soon got bored once there was nothing more to discuss. Kai left with a quick good-bye and after telling him that she would drop by again to see how he was doing later.

Simmons hoped that it wouldn't be too soon, as he felt that his brain still needed to try and recover from all of the information he had just received from their discussion a few minutes ago.

Lying in his bed, he suddenly didn't feel tired at all and instead started pondering and mulling over the snippets of information he had gotten from Kai just then that weren't too embarrassing to think on or too brain-breaking.

Namely, his mind drifted over and over again to the remarks about Grif and all of the mating stuff she'd mentioned.

What was it again that Grif had told him awhile ago back in the library when it came to wolvens and mating?

Right, wolvens created stronger ties when they bonded than even a werecat did with their chosen mate (and he knew werecats developed quite strong bonds as well).

If their mate died, they would too. If their mate rejected them, wolvens tended to die of loneliness as well.

What Grif hadn't told him was that wolvens would turn into their wolven form when their mate was in danger to protect them.

That was new information Kai had supplied him with.

So if it was true that Grif had turned to go and save him when he got injured so badly (and he did not believe Kai would lie about that), did that mean that Grif had bonded to him at some point?

Was that why Grif would always stick around close by?

Simmons felt his face heating up again as he pondered those questions, feeling an odd prickling sensation in his stomach when he thought about the situation more.

The door opened again, Grey entering without her bizarre-looking glasses framing her face which meant that it was once again time for an examination of Simmons while he was visible.

Simmons sighed, lying down and letting Grey sedate him to reexamine his wounds.

At the very latest, he would wake up again tomorrow in the morning.

Simmons only regretted not being able to see Grif again tonight in order to ask him about what Kai had told him.

He would most likely still be knocked out and sleeping when the wolven did show up to visit him then following work.

Blinking his eyes open the next time he woke up, he noticed Donut sitting beside his bed and knitting something with pink wool.

He didn't bother speaking up just then to inform Donut that he was awake.

He knew it was unfair to Donut since he had come to visit with him and everything, but Simmons was still too tired at the moment to have a serious conversation with the merman.

The anesthetic still in his system made him feel horribly groggy and drowsy, and no doubt he also still felt that way because the secretion of the moon dragon was working wonders on his injuries.

He would talk to the merman when he was more coherent.

With Donut, it was very similar to how it was like conversing with Kai. You had to be coherent and a lot more awake to have any sort of serious conversation with either of them.

It wasn't too surprising given how he felt just then upon waking up from a drugged sleep that Simmons preferred lying there with his eyes closed for a little while instead, listening to the steady clicking of the metal needles Donut was using to knit.

He also heard the merman hum a song that Simmons didn't know, though Donut must have been very familiar with it as he was varying the tune as he worked-sometimes humming the first or the second vocals for it, sometimes focusing more on humming some of the instruments' parts for it instead.

Listening to the humming, his thoughts again drifted onto a certain orange-wearing wolven.

Kaikaina told him that Grif had been looking for him following what had happened that resulted in Simmons getting injured, even turning when Simmons was in danger.

He thought back to all of the many times that Grif had been somewhere nearby.

It never seemed to take him long at all to find Simmons when he was in the library, and Grif had shortly afterwards picked up the habit of dropping by and sleeping on the couch there beside the redhead whenever he was studying.

It was very fortunate in a way for Simmons to have the other man around. Grif's relaxed and chilled attitude seemed to radiate off of him whenever he was close by, causing the redhead to feel more at ease in the wolven's presence than he normally ever felt.

Then again, that very same guy could also nearly drive Simmons nuts with that very same slacking-off attitude.

Grif's room was often left uncleaned and messy which forced Simmons to clean it up regularly despite it not being his room just to make sure that the lazy fuck wouldn't end up catching something from spending any amount of time in his own room since, arguably if left the way Grif usually left it, the room could count as a biohazard site.

Simmons actually wouldn't be the least bit surprised if whenever he opened the door to Grif's room the second after he was released from the infirmary, he would see something walking towards him out of that mess. Something that wasn't Grif, but some kind of unknown animal or creature that had somehow been born in there and subsequently evolved to the point where it had learned to walk during the time Simmons hadn't cleaned up the room.

He had a strong suspicion that that Grif hadn't bothered cleaning his room any while he was in the infirmary.

Musing over these things caused him to drop off into a light slumber again while thinking about Grif.

On this night, he dreamed of Grif turning into his wolven form and shredding a tin can to pieces because it hadn't opened when Simmons tried getting it to do so with a can opener. It had something to do with how that was a possible threat to Simmons as the redhead attempted cooking something in his parents' house.

That was strange: he never dreamed of doing anything in his parents' house. That must mean that thread of information meant something to his sleeping mind. The dream was mixing past things with more present ones.

Simmons frowned somewhat in his sleep when he realized that particular piece of information with more conscious thought, but it slipped away as quickly as it came and he fell more deeply back into the dream—Simmons deciding to just let it go since Grif was whining in the dream now because he was hungry.

After the 'shredder incident,' they watched a movie and ate a dinner that Grif hadn't attacked previously.

The movie they watched was Pacific Rim. They were eating popcorn along with it and suddenly the two of them were no longer in Simmons' old house but were sitting in the multimedia room of the Sanctuary.

They were alone there, and the two of them both fell asleep after deciding to watch another movie about halfway through it because the new film turned out to be absolutely boring.

When Simmons woke up in his dream, he was slouched against the wolven with his head resting on Grif's broad shoulder while the Hawaiian's head was resting on the redhead's.

The wolven was sleeping soundly still, just as Simmons had been doing only some minutes ago.

The redhead frowned again in his sleep. He was dreaming absolute nonsense before that made no sense, only to have somehow wound up in one of his fondest memories that seemed to be replaying now exactly as it had happened before.

That was a bit strange and disturbing in a way, but once more Simmons couldn't bring himself to care too much as his more conscious thoughts began being overpowered by his dreaming state once more.

He closed his eyes again in his dream and snuggled closer to the wolven, feeling the chubby man respond to the display of affection the redhead had just displayed by turning around slightly.

Grif was now lying on his back on the couch with Simmons on top of him, his head resting on the wolven's comfortable and broad chest.

Simmons felt the rise and fall of Grif's chest as he breathed in and out, heard the regular thumping of Grif's heart against his ear, and felt the warmth radiating off of Grif's body just as he had back then.

The dream had suddenly become even more real, causing him to relive what he had felt at that time.

Simmons didn't move and was content to simply continue lying on top of Grif's chest. He just enjoyed being with the other man as he was at the moment, feeling comfortable and safe on top of the wolven while encircled by his strong arms.

He had fallen asleep again soon after.

Simmons woke up in his bed, at first disoriented and unsure as to why he was in his room and lying on the worn mattress beside his bed.

The one thing about the situation that was still the same as when he had gone to sleep before was that Grif was holding him close in a strong and yet surprisingly soft embrace as he continued to doze.

Grif woke up a few minutes later due to feeling Simmons' shifting movement as he woke, explaining that he had brought Simmons back to his room when Grif couldn't wake the redhead earlier.

Kimball knew that they had the multimedia room for that night, and she also knew that they would clean it up the following day after speaking with Simmons earlier. She had told him that she didn't mind whenever they ended up cleaning the room the next day since no one had reserved the space for anything after them, as they both had earned having a night off and the next day to sleep in due to their hard work around the Sanctuary.

So Simmons once more decided to stay in bed and have a long and relaxing nap, cuddled closely to the wolven beside him instead of getting up and helping the others, or rushing out in a hurry to clean up in the multimedia room like he normally would have done.

When they went to clean the room the next afternoon, they didn't say much to one another.

There was an awkward silence, the chaos of cleaning up their mess from before and the boring movie replaying in the background as they did so reminding them of what had happened before and made them tense around one another.

This awkwardness, however, soon dissolved into nothing but thin air when they left the room later on, deciding to hang out in Simmons' room and play some computer games on his laptop.

Grif again fell asleep at some point during the game which allowed Simmons the opportunity to finally do some work.

What differed heavily from what he had really witnessed and experienced during those two days in the past and the dream he was currently in now, was the fact that Grif sat up at some point during the time that Simmons was working.

Instead of trying to coerce him into putting the laptop aside and taking a nap with him, the wolven took the device from Simmons' lap without saying anything and put it on the bed. Luckily he didn't throw it away in the dream, which would have been a pretty realistic thing for Grif to do too.

He then grasped the back of Simmons' shirt, making him lie down on the bed.

While he laid there, Simmons supposed the wolven would be lying down beside him to nap again since that tended to be how these types of moments went.

Instead, the wolven braced his weight on one of his arms as he regarded the redhead and rested a hand on Simmons' cheek.

Simmons couldn't really do anything else besides lie there and stare into those wonderful ocean-blue eyes the Hawaiian had whenever he was in human form.

He felt Grif getting closer and he did not mind the proximity at all.

He even met the wolven halfway when Grif leaned in for a kiss.

The sensation he felt then was the same as when he had been about to drop off to sleep several days ago and had felt that something had been pressed against his lips.

Breaking the kiss before either of them could become out of breath, Grif lied down beside the redhead and pulled him close into another embrace. Simmons couldn't help but cuddle happily into the wolven's form.

He again felt Grif place a kiss on the top of Simmons' head before the young man fell asleep.

And then he woke up in the real world, still in the infirmary.

To his large surprise, nobody was around for once. It was dark currently so Simmons suspected it to be night and the shining numbers of the clock on his nightstand confirmed that.

He did feel bad that he had apparently slept through Donut's entire visit earlier when he hadn't meant to do so but he figured that Donut would probably be understanding about why that had happened since clearly Simmons' body still needed all the rest it could get.

He closed his eyes to fall asleep again.

His thoughts, however, drifted back to Grif again and again which hindered him from falling asleep again too quickly.

After what felt like hours, though technically from the time his clock was displaying it had been only been around one and a half in reality, Simmons finally managed to fall asleep once more.

Simmons slept through the rest of the night until the next morning with no more dreams, weird or not, showing up again which left him to the dark and relaxing sleep he needed so urgently for his continued recovery.


	22. Chapter 22

"Hey, cockbite! Stop making vines grow around my legs when I'm sleeping!" a screeching shout resounded throughout the backyard of the Sanctuary.

"Well, when you stop pestering me all day I maybe will!" came the equally loud response. Any normal person with no knowledge of the Sanctuary perhaps would have been asking themselves if they had gone bonkers at some point while trying to explain to either themselves or someone else just where the two arguing voices were coming from. There appeared to be no human beings visible in the backyard where the oak stood after all, making any such attempts pretty hard to do.

For the Abnormals residing there or anyone else who knew about them, this arguing would be considered perfectly routine and normal. None of them would give it a second thought before deducing that it appeared to be the tree and the bat hanging in said tree that seemed to debating quite loudly.

Thoroughly pissed off by this point, the bat bit down on the vines wrapped around his legs in an attempt to try biting through them in order to get free.

The tree knew very well that the vampire hanging from one of his branches would soon throw a fit, filling the whole backyard with his yelling and screeching until the tree would release him. Or until he had managed to chew through the vines. Or the screeching fit transformed into a pouting one.

"You know what? Fuck off, I'm done here." the tree grumbled as a young man stepping out from behind the tree and walked over to the door to get inside the huge building.

"Yeah, but first you're going to release me!" the shouting sound of the bat followed him.

The young man, Bitters, didn't care about the command and instead gave him the one-finger salute while continuing to walk away, "Maybe you'll reconsider moving back to your repaired room soon after hanging out here for the day."

"Asshole!"

And that was when Church's fit of rage truly started.

Bitters closed the door, blocking out the clamoring and yelling of the bat, and trudged over to Matthews' room.

Fortunately, the empath had a new room temporarily away from the backyard as the one he had been originally assigned had gotten rather damaged in the fight.

Bitters would be spared from Church's screeching and clamoring for the day, and he might even end up generously releasing the bat for the night when he wanted to go to sleep.

And even if he did decide to just release Church and still give himself some peace and quiet by not staying in the backyard for a bit by staying with Matthews and his other fosterling for a bit, the big oak could survive a few days without him being around.

After the two of them had recovered fully from the lightning strike, they were even stronger than they had been before.

Besides, Bitters always had a strong connection to both of the trees he was looking after no matter how far apart he was from them. So he would know immediately if something was off with the big guy outside, even if not around him all the time.

He really hoped that nothing would happen in that vein, but he would just have to wait and see…

Upon entering the room he had been heading for, he saw Matthews standing in the middle of the space. He was topless and about to slip into a clean shirt.

It appeared as if one of the inhabitants in the Sector where the caged residents lived must have been in a particularly sour mood today judging by whatever foul-smelling substance was coating the soiled shirt the young man had just taken off.

The way Matthews cringed upon slipping out of the shirt a moment before Bitters had arrived and regarded it now made it even more apparent that he obviously was disgusted by whatever had happened.

Bitters walking over to the empath without attempting to hide his steps. After all, why bother hiding them when Matthews always noticed him approaching since he registered people's feelings well before they even physically appeared in front of him?

He stepped behind the young man and slipped his arms around his waist, pulling him into a hug with Matthews' back pressed against Bitters' chest.

Leaning down from that position, the Dryad placed a kiss on Matthews' neck, causing the empath to shudder and lean further back into the touch with a pleased sigh.

"Hey." the empath mumbled out just then, still not able to be around the Dryad without blushing. It was a trait Bitters would have to get used to as it was simply a part of Matthews' general nature.

"Hey." He greeted back, glancing at the dirty shirt, "Did one of the inhabitants have something against you?"

Matthews cringed and looked down at the shirt he had been slipping out of previously. It had some kind of blue goo sticking to it that smelled rather disgusting.

"Yeah, you could say that. But instead of tearing my arm open anymore, he now throws his shit." Matthews muttered, picking up the shirt gingerly from the heap it had been in on the floor previously before throwing it in the laundry basket in his room.

Bitters wrinkled his nose as he noticed the faint stench of excrements coming from the shirt still, "So he was in a really sour mood then, huh?"

"Worse than Church." Matthews replied after moving back towards where Bitters stood in the room following dropping the shirt in the basket, "Although I suppose he's pretty pissed off too? His annoyance is palpable even here."

"Oh, you know him." Bitters responded to that with a shrug, more interested now on continuing to observe the young empath's bare chest in order to drink in every possible detail.

A smile appeared on the empath's lips just then, Bitters only seeing it because his ears caught on to the fact that Matthews was speaking once more and that drew his focus back to the other's face again, "And you had absolutely nothing to do with the fit he's currently throwing in the backyard?"

"No, why would I?" Bitters tried playing things nonchalantly, throwing in an uncaring shrug for good measure.

"Oh, I don't know. You didn't do anything like causing vines to grow around his ankles to make him stay in place because he was annoying you earlier?" Matthews responded with a knowing look in his eyes, the sarcasm practically dripping off the question he obviously already knew the answer too.

A grin appeared on the Dryad's features at the mention of his prank, "I am just using really persuasive arguments to convince him to leave and return to his room so that he'll stop complaining about the changed layout and how it still smells like new paint was just put on."

Matthews shook his head at that, returning to the laundry basket to put it outside for Toby to pick up without having to knock on the door later and disturb them.

The laundry baskets were collected every day by a supporter of the Sanctuary named Toby who ran a dry cleaning service in the Italian part of the city.

Toby was a crocodile-human hybrid, although you could only tell his Abnormality through his slit pupils, and the skin-colored scales on shoulders, elbows, over his brows, and over his back on top of where his spine was located. He did also have rather pointed teeth that were slightly disarranged in a manner reminiscent of the sharp teeth in the mouth of a crocodile.

His looks weren't much different from the appearances that many normal people would pay tons of money for nowadays so people wouldn't freak out upon seeing him, only assuming that Toby was one of the people who worshipped his body by implanting stuff under his skin, piercing his skin, and getting tattoos. His life had become a lot easier to live ever since that kind of body culture had appeared, with some Abnormals in similar situations to Toby now also being able to live amongst normal people given that when they would not have been able to do so fifty years ago.

Matthews remembered learning that it had actually been an Abnormal who gave a Normal the idea to start putting implants under their skin, as the Normal had thought of the Abnormal's body traits as being rather cool and eye-catching.

The Abnormal in question had been forced to make up a believable story as to why they had those traits since, seriously, who would believe that that was natural without knowing about the parallel society of Abnormals? And that was how the whole concept had sparked to life and ended up spreading rather quickly throughout society like wildfire.

Due to Toby collecting the clothes everyday around seven in the evening after the last feeding of the specialized environment inhabitants of the Sanctuary occurred, Bitters didn't really care all that much about the stinking cloth lying in the basket though he certainly didn't mind it being put out in the hallway besides.

The young empath came back then, and Bitters could see a happy smile forming on his face. It made for an absolutely adorable view, really, especially combined with the pink now dusting Matthews' cheeks as well. The Dryad was actually rather surprised that Matthews had yet to put on the clean shirt he had seemed to be contemplating wearing before Bitters had entered the room.

Not that he would ever complain about that since he loved this particular view, but it was a bit unusual for the other young man. Matthews was often a lot more self-conscious when it came to his body than this.

That train of thought was immediately shoved aside when the empath arrived at where Bitters was standing in the room, resting his arm around the Dryad's neck and leaning up to kiss his boyfriend.

Bitters automatically tipped his head to meet his love halfway.

Since they had gotten together, Matthews had opened up a lot and had become more used to being in a romantic relationship with the Dryad. He had struggled some weeks in the beginning of their relationship with becoming accustomed to being with Bitters in that way: to being touched by him and touching him in return.

It wasn't that he disliked dating Bitters or anything, quite the contrary!

He loved getting touched by the Dryad. Lying in his arms, kissing him, cuddling up to him, lying somewhere together and leaning into the other young man.

Hearing Bitters' heart thudding in his chest, hearing the breathing, feeling his warmth… It all felt wonderful and new, even after all of the months since then that they have been together.

It was just…

He had gone through so much abuse by his parents and schoolmates that he had gotten wary and mistrusting when it came to that particular subject of his life. Which meant that he needed a lot of time and reassurances from his partner to finally be able to trust him and open up.

Bitters had once told him that Matthews had so much patience with him when it came to teaching him the way things were handled outside of the forest that it was only fair in return for Bitters to have the same patience with Matthews when it came to him learning to trust the Dryad.

The young forest dweller knew and understood that Matthews had gone through quite a lot of hardship before they had met.

At first, he did have some problems understanding what was going on with Matthews as after a certain point in their interactions together when they first started dating he would always get pushed back and didn't know why.

It was beyond frustrating to Bitters to see the one person he cared for most and who wanted to be with Bitters as well rather desperately given the empath's own actions still push him back whenever Matthews felt that things were getting too serious.

When he reached the point where he needed to really figure out what was going on, he sat the empath down for a whole night in which the Dryad tried gently coaxing him into speaking about what was going on.

It had been an extremely difficult process, actually.

Matthews had at first tried blocking every question from Bitters. When he noticed that the Dryad wasn't going to stop asking them and trying to get Matthews to tell him what had happened to him before they had met, he began to feed the Dryad little snippets of information in a sort of "I'll give you something small and vague about my past if you stop asking me about it all the time" deal.

Bitters, however, had not been satisfied with those tiny nuggets of information he received through that exchange. He wanted the whole truth, not just bits and pieces without any real rhyme or context to them.

And so he pressed the subject further. Matthews had gotten angry at first, though that was soon replaced by a sense of defeat. Around midnight, Matthews had finally given in and told him in great detail about what had happened during the last years he had lived at home growing up and his experiences with getting bullied.

Matthews had been bullied in the cruelest ways that someone could imagine. His parents had ignored him for most of his life and then almost beat him to death once they found out about his homosexuality.

Travelling around following that, he had gotten beaten up quite often and what little money he had was stolen which left him bruised, dirty, and hungry in the streets. He had been forced to ask complete strangers for money, begging them to either give him some if they could spare any change or possibly just buy him something to eat.

Bitters still had this image of Matthews from when he had first come to the Sanctuary burned into his memory. If he closed his eyes, he could see the boy as he had been back then standing in front of him.

He had been sickeningly thin from malnutrition with ribs sticking out and his legs as thin as his wrists had been.

He preferred not thinking of Matthews' arms from that time period. He had simply looked horrible back then all over, he remembered.

Thinking about the young man after the months that he had been at the Sanctuary, still lanky but well-nurtured, lying in his arms was much better now.

He had known that Matthews had been the target of many cruel jokes before, but he had never known the full extent of what had happened to him. Hearing the details and thinking back on the picture of misery he had seen the day that Matthews had arrived at the Sanctuary made him understand why Matthews was so reluctant and hesitant in trusting people. He had been forced to go through so much that it was near impossible for him to be able to trust people on the spot without any reservations whatsoever as just an everyday survival mechanism.

Knowing all of the shit that the empath had to endure, it was much easier for Bitters to be patient and take little steps in a positive direction as huge progresses as they continued dating. He rejoiced every time the empath would do something trusting or that left him slightly open and more vulnerable of his own accord without Bitters asking him to do so.

It took time, but eventually Matthews was able to trust the Dryad unconditionally. The forest dweller was sure that this deep trust also came from Matthews being an empath and therefore being able to feel that Bitters never had any bad intentions in regards to being with him which seemed to help Matthews be able to trust him even faster than what would probably be the case otherwise too.

At least, he believed and hoped so. He couldn't really prove it either way as Matthews wouldn't speak up on that particular subject and Bitters wouldn't press it.

Responding to Matthews' kiss gently but with a hidden desire, he felt the young redhead practically melt into his embrace when he felt the Dryad returning it.

Wrapping his arms around the empath's waist, he supported the young man who suddenly seemed to have jelly instead of legs and was no longer able to stand upright as a result of that.

Breaking the kiss to breathe, Bitters tightened his embrace around Matthews. He could tell that the other young man was troubled by something even without being an empath himself just then by how quickly he seemed to grip onto the Dryad like a lifeline just then.

"What's up?" he asked, concerned, "Is something not okay?"

Matthews hesitated and the expression clouding over his face made it seem as if he was arguing with himself about whether he should tell Bitters what was going on or not. The forest dweller waited patiently, knowing it was better to do that than to hurry the empath. When the thoughtful expression on Matthews' face intensified, Bitters rubbed soothing circles into the small of his boyfriend's back to try and massage one of the kinks there.

"I know I shouldn't pressure myself about getting along with the other inhabitants, but I've been here for quite some time now." The empath responded, looking troubled, "Shouldn't I be know every inhabitant by now? And be able to get along with them? Even more so when I'm the one feeding them?"

Matthews had his head tucked under Bitters' chin at that point, the Dryad straightening a bit to rest his chin on Matthews' head while contemplating the situation.

He knew that he had to choose his wording very carefully as Matthews always had been someone who desperately wanted to please everyone. This was a trait he had carried with him from earlier in his life when he always had been always been alone or bullied courtesy of his cruel schoolmates and his even crueler parents.

He sighed, deciding to just give it a go and rephrase things whenever he thought it was necessary as he went. It wouldn't be the first time he had to do that given the tendency of his mouth to run off without him processing fully what he was saying whenever he tried explain things and having to quickly think of a different way to word something if he could as a result of that.

"You know you can't be on good terms with everyone, even here in the Sanctuary." Bitters began, already adding in before Matthews was able to ask why that was, "I can't tell you why, but sometimes it just doesn't click between two personalities."

He was trying to be careful to not let his chin dig into the top of Matthews' head as he continued speaking, "Some individuals just don't like each other. Either they don't like each other from the beginning or they decide they don't later on as they get to know one another. It can be the opposite and sometimes they do end up getting to like one another, and sometimes that never happens. That's completely normal and a part of human nature."

He felt Matthews tensing in his embrace. Bitters pulled away, cupping the empath's face in his hands and looking him straight in the eyes to get him to stop trying to squirm away or start riling himself up.

"Look, even in the forest where I lived before it was impossible for everyone to like everyone else. There were people who just didn't like me and there were people I just couldn't stand. That's what happens in society. There's no reason to beat yourself up over it."

His voice was soft and reassuring, and his thumb ghosted over Matthews' cheek absentmindedly as he carried on with his talk, "Those who don't like you can go fuck themselves. The most important things are what your friends and your partner thinks of you." Bitters smiled reassuringly at that part, "And I think you're perfect the way you are. You are kind, patient, and loving. You're always there for me and the little fosterling. What we think of you is what counts, okay?"

Matthews' face became a dark pink color at that, his eyes lighting up with happiness and love. The previous feelings of bitterness and hurt were completely gone from his features and had been replaced thoroughly by much more positive emotions. Bitters couldn't help but smile even more at this image of a flattered and happy Matthews.

The forest dweller would love to do nothing more than just kiss his boyfriend in that moment, but he had something important to add to his previous topic before he felt he could give in to his desire to do so.

"You are perfect the way you are, don't ever forget that." the Dryad repeated, waiting some moments for Matthews to let everything he had just said sink in before adding, "And about the dickwad down there. Why don't you go to Kimball and explain to her what happened, maybe if she knows about the situation the two of you can make an arrangement where you don't have to feed this guy anymore?"

"But I can't just drop one of them! That would leave others to have to do it instead. And with Simmons in the infirmary still and the others already covering his shifts, I couldn't—" the empath protested, Bitters shaking his head slightly to suppress any more words of protest from the other young man about halfway through his rant.

"I didn't say you should drop it. I said make an arrangement. Maybe Kimball, Carolina, or Simmons later on when he's recovered would be glad to have you take over the feeding of some other inhabitant that they happen to not click with and, in return for that, they take over feeding this fellow that you don't get along with." He explained, "You understand?"

"You mean like us switching to inhabitants who don't like their currently assigned feeder but might like a new one better?" the young blond asked after some moments of contemplating Bitters' idea.

"Something like that, yeah." Bitters agreed, his thumb still ghosting over Matthews' cheek while staring into those wonderful dark eyes of his.

There was a moment of silence following this with Matthews thinking about the idea.

It was rather funny. The empath was so fast at picking up on the emotions of others, but when it came to contemplating ideas where he had to ask for help or couldn't please everyone like he wanted to do, it took him almost hours to finally decide on a course of action.

He was just too good-natured for this world, where cruelty and mistrust were always a constant.

Someone like him needed to be protected. They were the types of people worth fighting for.

"I think…" Matthews began with a contemplative note in his voice, a small smile appearing on his lips, "I could give it a try and check with Kimball tomorrow."

"Good. That's all I wanted to hear." Bitters was smart enough to know that there wouldn't be a decision made right now, but Matthews saying he would try it was the best answer he wanted to hear and knew he would get on the subject.

Pulling him closer once more, Bitters again wrapped his hands around the lanky figure of his boyfriend and leaned down for a kiss, only to be met halfway by his love's lips.

Giving into the pressure of his boyfriend's hands against his chest, he moved back having no idea where this turn of events would go.

He was curious. It was rather rare for Matthews to take over the lead from the beginning and to show so clearly that he wanted to be the one saying what was going to happen.

Usually, Matthews would only ever temporarily take over the lead when something they did ended up accidentally disturbing or hurting him in some way, or when he was of the opinion that there was a much more comfortable way they could be handling things.

Backing away from this thoughts and concentrating on the pressure of the hands on him now, Bitters let Matthews lead him.

The slightly changing pressure of the empath's hands indicated to Bitters that he should walk straight backwards or move to the right or the left just then.

Before he really could get a sense behind why Matthews was pushing him this way, he felt something soft hit against the back of his knees and he fell backwards in the next moment as his knees gave in to the object.

Bitters landed on Matthews' bed, feeling a bit baffled as to how accurately Matthews had led him to the very middle of the bed. He always had a great sense of his location in any room, which he had just proved yet again by maneuvering Bitters without any hesitation to the bed.

Hell, he hadn't even looked!

Looking up from the mattress just then, he could see the same smile he had seen before still on the empath's lips, although the smile had turned slightly predatory in a way.

Bitters shuddered when he saw the smirk on Matthews' lips.

He looked awesomely badass with that smirk. It was too bad he didn't wear it more often.

Bitters felt the bed underneath him shift when Matthews placed a knee beside each of Bitters' hips, slowly crawling forward to dive in for another kiss which made Bitters revise his earlier opinion slightly.

His whole behavior right now was smug, almost cocky. Matthews looked absolutely fucking awesome like that.

What was that he'd been thinking before about Matthews rarely ever taking the lead and needing time to try something new?

This here was definitely a new turn in the empath's behavior.

Bitters would have been lying if he were to say that he didn't fucking like it.


	23. Chapter 23

Uh, well, a little bit late but: Happy Halloween :)

It had been one and a half months since the incident, and Simmons slowly began to feel better with each passing day. He still felt exhausted as fuck and wanted to sleep more often than not, but his injuries were nothing more than shallow wounds compared to what they had been before.

He even had enough energy now to walk around a bit and to start training his left limbs. After such a severe incident, one tended to subconsciously unburden the affected body part. It was highly important (and for once he had the same opinion as Dr. Grey on the subject) to start training the limbs again to get an accurate feeling of your body once more.

Kimball still insisted on putting the Moon Dragon glandular secretion on his remaining wounds, but not as extensively as she had in the beginning since most of the wounds had already healed completely.

Which meant that his body needed to use less energy in order for the remaining wounds to heal and Simmons was feeling a little bit better given that. But only just a little bit.

The downside to everything besides sleeping so much?

He still couldn't turn visible.

He was trying hard to turn visible again, but so far nothing was working out. Every attempt he made left Simmons still invisible, sad and frustrated as all fuck because it hadn't worked yet again.

His body still seemed to be stuck in an alarm state over what had happened and instinctively given that it was preferring to not return to visibility until he was really safe.

Which could be never considering that skirmishes and trouble were a daily given in the Sanctuary.

Putting the book he had been reading just then aside, Simmons lied down and tried to sleep again. He was able to read and do other things that demanded his concentration for half an hour up to an hour before getting too tired to do anything at all now.

At least he was able to do something besides sleeping and lying around for a little while.

Unable to fall asleep no matter what he tried to do, his thoughts drifted back to earlier as he tossed and turned around on his bed in an attempt to get comfortable.

Being more coherent again, the redhead had enjoyed these days at first where he could simply sleep and slack off as he restored the energy he had been running low on for several years simply given his general nature.

However, after a few days of that had passed, thing had gotten pretty boring very quickly. He should have expected as much.

Simmons almost admired Grif for being such a consistent slacker and never feeling like the ceiling was coming down when he was slacking off for several days without ever attempting to be productive.

Speaking of Grif…

It was Wednesday which meant he was working. He had shortly dropped by before when Simmons had been about to wake up but had not yet been coherent enough to inform Grif that he was getting awake.

He was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness, desperately trying to claw his way to the surface to talk to Grif.

He hadn't managed to do so until the wolven left.

The Hawaiian hadn't said much then. He only asked how Simmons felt although he seemed to know that he wouldn't get an answer from the young man. He then told the redhead that he would be going to work then although he would rather be slacking off.

Hell, Simmons realized after thinking about the situation that morning that the lazy fuck had even sacrificed his own breakfast to visit him. That fucking meant something!

His sleep-addled brain couldn't form a coherent thought that morning, his mind simply enjoying the touch of Grif's hand atop of his head as the fingers of the wolven's other hand gently brushed over his cheek.

It was a miracle how Grif was able to know where those body parts were, considering the fact that he still was invisible. Although…

Thinking about it now, Simmons chalked it up to Grif knowing him inside out. And, besides, Grif had once told him that he would always be able to recognize Simmons' scent even out of a million other ones.

Maybe the wolven was able to smell where his head was thanks to his foul breath?

Simmons cringed at that thought. He seriously needed to brush his teeth…

Before the wolven left, Simmons heard him say that he would come to see him in the evening before pressing a kiss to his forehead and leaving shortly afterwards.

Grif hated good-byes, as he said they were something you said when leaving and never expecting to come back.

Their mom had said goodbye and had never come back for him and Kai.

Grif preferred to say "see you" or some other term to make it clear that he would be coming back. He would never say "goodbye" unless it was an inevitable and permanent leave.

The kiss to his forehead didn't really alarm the redhead.

He had often felt as if someone was pressing a kiss to his forehead, cheek, or lips when he wasn't coherent enough due to the increased healing and the resulting lack of energy. Or when he was simply as high as a bedrock from all of the painkillers he had been on.

Thinking of it now, however, made him turn red.

Luckily his cells stayed invisible even when Simmons felt like his face was... uh… getting fucking hot. How idiotic would it look to only see his face as he was turning as red as a tomato?

Simmons snorted at that mental image. Fucking ridiculous.

But… what was it about all of those kisses?

Subconsciously, the redhead began biting his right thumbnail. It was a nervous habit he had picked up years ago whenever he thought about stuff that made him anxious.

That had gotten better since Grif calmed him in a lot of departments. Obviously though this particular subject here was making him so nervous that he was starting up the habit again.

He repeated the question in his head: what about those kisses? What did they mean?

He knew that in his wolven form, Grif was very affectionate when it came to being around Simmons. He would lie at his feet with his body pressed against Simmons' legs. When the redhead would sit on the ground or Grif's bed, the wolven would rest his head on Simmons' lap and the redhead would pet him in return.

The human Grif, on the other hand, wasn't nearly that affectionate.

Okay, he would be around the redhead as much as when he was in his wolven form, but he would always keep his distance, leaving Simmons personal space of his own and not touching him as much as the wolven would.

It was strange behavior, the complete opposite of one another.

But that wasn't the reason why the kisses didn't freak Simmons out as much as they maybe should.

What was it then?

Giving up on trying to fall asleep, he rolled out of his bed and padded over to the toilet. Afterwards, he went to the sink to wash his hands and brush his teeth.

During the time he took to get clean, he thought once again about the kisses.

It seemed so natural for Grif to do that, now that he thought more about it.

Simmons remembered him doing that occasionally even before the accident happened. Since then, it had become more frequent with Grif being around the redhead whenever he had the possibility to do so: kissing him hello, goodbye, good night, or whatever other reason he had for kissing the other man when Simmons seemed to be asleep.

The redhead was sure now that Grif had kissed him those times he had already been fast asleep too.

His cheeks again started to become pink at that realization. Argh!

Tucking himself back into bed, he stared up at the ceiling as he desperately tried to find a sense behind the nervous jumble of emotions he felt inside when thinking about Grif and his actions.

Mostly the ones involving those kisses.

He was no empath, but he knew that something had to be up. His feelings were going crazy whenever he thought about the wolven.

But what did he feel exactly?

Concentrating, he could decipher different and pretty much opposite feelings in regards to Grif. Annoyance and fondness, nervousness and easiness, the urge to laugh with him one moment and then to cry and rage at him the next.

He wanted to be close to him, to feel his warmth, and to hear his heart beating again like he had occasionally done in the past.

At the same time, he wanted to stay the fuck away from Grif because he was such a lazy slob.

Or… was it more because Simmons' feelings tended to knot up into one huge mess whenever Grif was around, leaving him confused and nervous about everything? Unsure of what he should do or not do? Fearful about saying something that might upset the wolven and drive him away?

There was another feeling underlining all of his emotions.

He felt like smiling until his face would split in half.

He noticed a strange feeling in his belly. Something similar to when he would get tickled, although this particular sensation was more on the inside of his belly and not just on the skin. At the same time, his stomach felt as though he was going to puke.

His whole body felt like when he had been drugged up to his hairline: he felt light and as if he was floating, without the nasty side effect of being disoriented.

Maybe he should ask Matthews later what this jumble of emotions meant?

No, Simmons discarded that thought as fast as it had come.

He would keep this to himself. If it turned out to be nothing, it would sound so goddamn stupid and embarrassing trying to explain it to someone else. He would rather try to find out what was going on himself before making a fuss.

Normally he would tell Grif about stuff like this, but this was something which obviously involved him so Simmons thought it might be better to really figure things out by himself before going to Grif about it.

Maybe Grif would even laugh whenever he told him about it later. Or just fall asleep.

Yeah, that would most likely be what would happen. Grif wouldn't even probably remember by then what they had been talking about before whenever he would wake up.

That possibility made Simmons sad when he thought about it.

It was more than normal for Grif to fall asleep during the redhead's rants, both of them profiting from them in that way as Simmons could blow off steam and Grif got to sleep.

Yet, at the same time, it made him sad to realize that Grif probably wouldn't listen to this particular problem given that tendency, instead falling asleep like he would every time when the redhead started to rant.

Sighing, Simmons punched his pillow until he felt somewhat comfortable again.

Which meant that he was in very much the same position as he had been in before all of this had even started.

Grumbling, he turned around and decided to shoot a text to Carolina.

 _Carolina_

 _Would you mind bringing me my stuff from school?_

Moments later, the phone buzzed with her reply:

 _"_ _What for?_

Simmons groaned, typing out a quick reply of his own:

 _I feel like going crazy here. I need something to do._

Carolina's reply came immediately, the grin on her face just then evident even through her text:

 _How about sleeping in and slacking off?_

Simmons shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips despite the annoyance he felt at the teasing response:

 _I already did that. I cannot sleep more than I already did. I need something for my head to do or I won't be able to fall asleep again._

There was a long silence after shooting off this last text, which made Simmons feel uncomfortable. Moments later, that uncomfortableness turned into extreme nervousness. What if Carolina had broken the phone after reading his text? Or threw it at some poor guy's head?

As he was just about to start biting at his thumbnail once more, he heard the door opening.

Carolina entered with his backpack, not really looking like the heavy bag was causing her any troubles whatsoever.

Simmons had always been happy that he didn't need to walk to school with that horribly heavy bag of his. It was enough just carrying it from his room to the library at times.

He knew he could leave his stuff in the library and it would be safe, but he preferred having his stuff in his room when not studying.

"Here's your stuff. Don't overdo it or you will get into some serious trouble with Grey and Kimball." Carolina advised, dropping the backpack beside his bed.

Simmons' face heated up, his voice rising in pitch when he replied, "Uh, yeah. Uh, thanks!"

Trying to lift his backpack onto the bed, he noticed that he had lost a lot of strength since he had been cooped up in bed recovering. Not really surprising given everything, but rather frustrating all the same.

The phoenix had to help him heave the bag onto the bed next to Simmons' good leg.

Before Carolina turned to leave, Simmons had another idea, "Uh, Carolina?"

"Still here." She told him, "But I'll be gone soon if you don't hurry up and say what you need."

Simmons cleared his throat with an awkward cough, looking everywhere but at Carolina. Luckily, he was invisible so she wouldn't notice it.

"I, uh, I wanted to ask you." He coughed again, "Uh, if you could bring me some literature about the wolvens."

She raised an eyebrow at that curiously, "Couldn't you just ask the Grifs for that?"

"I…" Simmons trailed off, staring down at where he felt his hands were. He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"I see." She filled in the embarrassed silence with that remark and a quick nod of her head, "I will check with Kimball. Any preferences?"

Simmons was thankful that Carolina seemed to have picked up on that this was something the redhead didn't want to ask the wolvens about and would rather get the information he wanted to learn from a book instead.

"Uh, anything about the pack. Like hierarchies and pack behaviors, as well as their bonds and stuff if books on those subjects exist. Maybe also about the legends and the truths behind them." Simmons started, another thought crossing his mind, "Maybe Kimball has a book about specialties of the wolven?"

He wasn't sure if she had one, so he decided to ask.

"Specialties?" Carolina looked thoughtful at that word choice.

"Like…" Simmons hesitated, trying to form his thoughts into words. While trying he noticed that it sounded so idiotic. But he knew that Carolina wouldn't let him off the hook now, "Uh, like, special traits they have. Not the turning and stuff, more like… uh… if special lunar events have an effect on them, or like… uh, they have a weak spot for some kind of thing."

Simmons explained, trying to form the jumble of thoughts in his head just then in a coherent sentence, "Like how werecats love catnip, for example, and gold is deadly for them."

Carolina cocked her head, observing the shape of the young man in the bed as she listened to him. She didn't interrupt and allowed the redhead to continue his nervous-but-getting-more-excited-by-the-moment explanation. A slight grin appeared on her face.

Simmons felt his face become even hotter when he saw that, but decided not to comment on it.

When he didn't continue after a few seconds, Carolina nodded and started to walk off with the grin still plastered on her lips.

"I'll check what I can do to make you a better pack member." She called out over her shoulder, a teasing lilt to her voice.

Simmons only hoped that Carolina didn't hear the absolutely fucking embarrassing squeak the young man made upon realizing what she had implied.

His face grew even hotter and he felt as if his face was hot enough by now to probably fry an egg on it.

Again.

Slowly, Simmons started to unpack his stuff and started to set up his laptop on the little table he usually used to eat. He opened his books and began searching for notes. Soon, all of his notes and books were strewn over his bed, and he carefully paid attention to not lay anything too close to his upper left leg where he still had a wound from an especially severe burn.

Hours later, Carolina showed up with a serving cart that had several books on it, "This is all I found in the library." She informed him, "I'll ask Kimball to check and see if I forgot any when she's back from her mission."

Simmons looked at the books, already knowing from the pile there that he would have several hours of reading ahead of him.

"Uh, thanks." the young man squawked out, still regarding the books with both eagerness and trepidation. He then picked up on something that Carolina had said and looked over at her curiously, "She's on a mission? And you're not with her?"

Carolina shrugged her shoulders indifferently before answering, "It's a pretty delicate situation which was why she decided to only take North and York with her as reinforcements."

"Uh, okay?" Simmons muttered, blinking at the answer.

It was rare but every once in a while there occurred more delicate situations that sometimes required more diplomacy than brute force, and whenever they came about Kimball decided to solve those matters with as less force as possible.

Usually that meant that a special Abnormal would soon make its appearance when they managed to get a hold of it.

"Thanks again for the books." Simmons told her with a beet red face and a mutter, which sounded like a fucking dying hamster.

"Just don't overdo it." She told him fondly, before adding with a bit more force behind her words, "I will sic Grey on you, you got me?"

"Yes!" Simmons squeaked, dread pooling in his stomach at the image of Grey dissecting or psychoanalyzing him. He would rather stay a good patient and not overdo it.

Carolina nodded again, regarding the shape of the invisible young man sitting before her surrounded by books and notes.

"Have fun with the books." She smiled slightly, "I'm sure Kimball will drop by when she's back. She said something about being back around lunch."

"Thanks." Simmons muttered again, already resting one of the new books on his lap.

The phoenix turned around, leaving the redhead to himself and his books. She exited the infirmary with her usual self-confident and challenging gait.

Simmons immediately began to pour over the other books that Carolina had so graciously gotten for him, the essay he had been working on before then already long forgotten.


	24. Chapter 24

The next time the door opened, it was in the afternoon and Simmons was still reading the books.

Grey had almost ripped his head off when she saw what he was doing, but he managed to convince her that he had desperately needed something to do. When he couldn't make his brain tired by reading or working, he wasn't able to sleep decently during the night.

After some more arguments on the subject, the witch then accepted a deal where Simmons would be free to read through the whole day. But that was only ever until she felt enough was enough for health reasons or when the clock struck ten in the evening: in either case, he would have to put everything aside and try to sleep.

Simmons agreed, knowing that Grey was actually being very generous considering the subject they had been arguing about and the fact that she was just concerned for his continued recovery.

"You don't need to be an expert about wolvens if you want to get in my brother's pants." Kai remarked suddenly.

She was standing right beside him and looking at the book he had been reading, which made him almost throw away the huge tome.

"K—Kai!" Simmons would always deny that he had let loose an absolutely unmanly shriek and jumped almost a meter high just then.

"Yep, that's me." A smirk appeared on her lips as she slumped into the chair beside the bed. "How are you doing?" she looked at the parts she could see of the redhead as he rested on the bed.

Grif and Kai were acting like it was perfectly normal that the person they were talking to was invisible.

Okay, considering the inhabitants here, wolvens and invisible dudes were most likely more common than one might think at a place like the Sanctuary.

"I'm good currently." He managed to get out once his heartrate went back to an acceptable range following her surprise entrance before, "Grey said I could leave tomorrow since the ointment should heal enough of the remaining wounds tonight."

"Neat!" she grinned at that, "I gotta tell my brother then that you're leaving!"

Simmons' face turned beet red again, and he tried not to think about Kai's earlier comment.

What was it with all of this blushing and getting nervous anyway he was suddenly doing anyways? It was just Grif she was talking about!

Or was it because it was just Grif…?

The redhead decided it was better to put the stuff away for now. He only had the book on his lap left out. He had cleaned up the mess of books from before and his laptop earlier.

It was better to not have something close by when you wanted to continue talking to Kai. You wouldn't be able to finish any kind of work properly anyway for a while afterwards.

The best one could hope for, after talking to either Kai or Donut for an extended amount of time, would be to try to get some sleep. They could exhaust just about anyone with their sayings and antics. "School's over?" Simmons asked casually.

It was strange. He had trouble speaking to all other women but Kai. Since his accident, she had been here as much as Grif and somehow she had become family to him given that.

Or to say it in terms of wolvens: she had become pack just as Grif had.

"Yeah, finally! I thought I was never going to get home." the wolven groaned, "Those dick suckers thought it would be funny to have an exam right at the end of the fucking last lesson! I even missed the bus! I had to call Sarge to come and drive me home!" Grif's sister ranted, letting her head fall backwards so she was looking up at the ceiling.

"Did you do well?" he asked her, "I mean on the test?"

Her head rose back up, an indifferent shrug following, "Dunno. I hope so. Otherwise Miss Kimball is going to rip me into pieces."

"My offer to help you still stands." the redhead remarked casually, looking over to her.

Since they had gotten closer, her flair to make inappropriate or sexual jokes had subdued a bit. Not completely, as that was just how Kai was, but somewhat.

He noticed that she was pretty smart behind her mask of idiotic behavior. Not necessarily smart in scholarly terms, but she was definitely of much higher intelligence than most when it came to instincts and reading people.

"I know. It's not about understanding it. I just don't get how to keep that shit in my head." the Hawaiian girl groaned, leaning forward again and propping up her elbows on the bed with her head on her hands.

She looked at the redhead with glee shimmering with the very same ocean blue eyes that Grif had, "Now, tell me, how come you're hitting the books instead of just asking us? You wanna find some way

to get my brother into your bed or what?"

Simmons' face turned beet red at that and he started to sputter. He needed some moments before he could even simply state: "I—it's complicated. I can't tell you what I'm looking for, so I can't ask you guys about it. I can't even say what it is I want to know myself."

"So you're hitting the books like a madman because you think we wouldn't be able to explain stuff?" Kai responded, sitting back up and crossing her arms in front of her chest with a huff, "What is it you want to know?"

He sighed before repeating, "I don't know, okay?"

"Can you at least approximately say what it might be you want to know?" Kai asked and once Simmons nodded to that weakly, she added, "So tell me that and I can tell you what I know about it."It sounded so fucking simple when she said that she would be able to explain like that.

Simmons sighed, trying to sort out the thoughts that were going around in a crazy swirl in his head. He made up a priority list before starting: "Pack hierarchies."

"That's pretty outspoken for a nerd like you. Directly asking me about that subject." Kai remarked with a grin.

Simmons ducked his head apologetically. He felt like he had asked something that was for wolvens similar to what the Holy Grail was for Christians.

"Sorry…"

"Nothing to apologize for, gray guy." Kai waved the redhead off, "It's only that the hierarchies are complex and something wolvens wouldn't normally talk to just anyone about."

Simmons felt bad about asking about that subject then and getting turned down, only to gape at her when she continued, "But since you're practically a part of the pack I guess I can start to teach you how to behave as a member of it. I'm sure Grif won't mind me telling you about it." Her grin widened at that last comment.

Simmons wasn't able to reply as Kai was already starting to explain, "Okay, so where do I start?"

She tapped on her chin with her left index finger, thinking hard, "Ah, I know! As you know, there's the Grif Clan." She started, "Well, not everyone has this name anymore. It's more like… like a name to show you're a part of it. Like with the Falcons. You're a part of the football team but your name's not Falcon. Get me?"

Simmons nodded. He smiled at the more childlike explanation of the wolven, but it was rather fitting so far and illustrating very well what she wanted to explain.

"Okay," Kai continued, "Then there are several packs making out the Clan. Packs mean like Grif, you, and me."

"Like packs amongst normal wolves." Simmons chimed in, "They're all wolves, but they're not necessarily one huge pack just because they're alike."

A grin spread over Kai's face at that, "Exactly!" she nodded to emphasize the conclusion that Simmons had made. The redhead smiled.

"Anyways. Now about the structures. They're special because none of the packs have the same structure, rules, and ways of treating each other like another pack does. Which is why they won't tell them to even other wolvens. They are proud of the way their pack works." Kai continued, "Telling someone else anything about a pack structure also reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the pack, as well those of the Alpha. This means that you could possibly open the door for another Alpha to take over your pack through them killing the currently leading Alpha."

Simmons felt dread pool in his stomach. This was why they wouldn't tell someone who was not pack about the structures then.

Kai carried on, nonplussed by Simmons' reaction, "I can't tell you exactly how things are handled in the pack here as it's only you, me, and Dex." She explained, "You will get to know more about it yourself when you're out of the infirmary and more around us. You will soon see how it works. Just observe the way the pack works and you will start to see the structure."

It was only logical that Kai couldn't explain it in too great of detail. Hell, even for Simmons it sounded fucking complicated!

Shifting so that Simmons could lean more properly against the erected backrest of the bed, he listened as Kai continued, "You know, maybe you'll get turned at some point. Then you can fuck around with Grif as much as you want because you would be even more sensitive to the way the pack works." She told him cheerily.

Simmons, however, was still stuck at one particular thing Kai had said just then otherwise that last part would have probably had his face going into overheating mode again, "Turned?"

"Yeah, wolven can turn humans into wolvens too!" the girl explained enthusiastically, her hands now flailing around to help further illustrate what she was talking about, "Although that can only happen during the blood moon. On that night, our instincts take over and our human logic gets more upstaged. Following our instincts means that we try to turn as many people into wolven as possible during that night. You know, to help enlarge the clan and shit."

She shrugged, continuing when no reply came from Simmons at that, "Anyways, during this time, Dex and I tend to stay to ourselves and avoid any contact with humans until the blood moon is over. The effect isn't palpable everywhere on the planet. Wolvens have to directly be under the influence of it." She looked thoughtful just then, "Like, when there is a blood moon here, wolvens in Asia aren't affected by it. You get me?"

"Yes, pretty clear so far. Although I don't understand why I hadn't been told that before now." Simmons muttered.

Kai snickered, "That's probably because blood moons have been rare during the last years," the wolven explained casually, again leaning back, "Anyways, I heard there will be one in the near future. I don't know when, but it'll happen."

Simmons decided to look that piece of information up following the rest of this talk.

Kai laughed lowly, "I'm sure that the next blood moon will be horrible for my dear brother of mine." She chuckled again, "He almost chewed through the door when you were here in the infirmary and he hadn't been able to visit you. During a blood moon it'll get even worse as his instincts will be telling him to not only break down the fucking door, but turn and fuck you."

Simmons felt his face flush again. Seriously, didn't Kai feel the heat radiating off of him when she said stuff like that?

"T—turn and fu—fuck?" Okay, there were occasions where it was totally okay and acceptable that he would splutter. Like right now.

"Yeah, that's the most reasonable thing for a wolven to do. Turn their mates to extend their life and make them part of the pack." Kai nodded her head, regarding the redhead as if he was visible, "I'm pretty good at guessing what people would be should they be turned. You're definitely going to be an Omega." Kai stated, Simmons gasping for air by that point.

"Why? I'm not even roughly submissive." Simmons stated incredulously.

This time, Kai laughed loudly and her laugh was more reminiscent of barking than human laughter. Maybe it was trait she had from having been a wolven first before a human.

"It's not only about being submissive. Omegas are mostly hardcore suck-ups. That's what detects them. And you are a kiss-ass par excellence." Although she pronounced it wrong, Simmons wondered where she had picked up that saying.

"I'm no kiss-ass."

"Sure you are," the wolven stated simply, "You don't suck up to Grif, but you do to Sarge and Kimball. But don't worry. If he really turns you, you're going to be sucking up to Grif too. At least when you're a wolven. And I'm sure as fuck he's going to love it when you suck him up." Simmons had the strong urge do bury his face in his hands but restrained himself to do so, listening to Kai elaborating further. "When being a human, you're more your old self although you will get some wolven traits like sucking up to your Alpha and your instincts are more present even as human." She paused shortly to adjust the way she was sitting, "The thing is, when you're not born a wolven, the characters can be quite opposite of each other. We, who are born wolven, are more balanced between these two characters, although there are some differences still too."

Simmons nodded, understanding what Kai was telling him about that dynamic. He quickly contemplated the information before asking, "So Grif's the Alpha. What are you then?"

"I'm an Omega." Kai replied casually, "So we're the same."

Simmons felt his face heating up again at this remark, preferring to say nothing to that and just suck it up. The way she talked gave Simmons the intention that she actually wanted him to get turned so they could be a true pack.

Simmons, however, found this thought horrific. Getting bitten in order to turn into a wolven? That was batshit crazy!

"Grif's the Alpha and I'm the Omega of the team," Kai seemed to have picked up on Simmons' uncomfortableness, "And you, with the way you are now, are a member of the pack too and considering your character you're an Omega in wolven-terms."

Simmons smiled flatly before asking something else just to get away from the whole getting bitten stuff. "What about the legends? Or special traits of wolvens?" He knew enough of pack hierarchies and bonding. He thought about what Grif had told him about bonding before and what he had found out in the books he'd read recently was exactly what the wolven had told him back then.

Kai sighed beside him as if thinking about those questions was causing her troubles or was too boring at the moment.

Simmons hastily interposed, "You don't need to answer if you don't feel like it."

"No, it's okay," Kai waved his concern off, "It's just that… I always have to put the thoughts of the wolven into human words. It isn't that easy to explain." She frowned thoughtfully, "Maybe Dex really would be better with that. He knows more about the clan in general. Our dad used to tell him a lot about the wolven and taught him as much about it."

"But I want to hear it from you." God, Simmons sounded like a petulant child.

Kai scoffed, a grin spreading over her lips. It was very similar to when Grif grinned, "Okay, gray guy. Just because it's you." She replied, starting to tell him about the legends and the truth behind them. Like how human beings are able to turn into wolvens and about the full moon having an effect on them, which Simmons already knew about from Grif.

The special traits that Kai mentioned were also pretty much already common knowledge to Simmons. When a wolven became bonded to someone, they're very attached to this person. They're always around them, being close, using every possible and impossible explanation to be with them.

They would also listen to their mate more than to other people. Just like how Grif would listen to Simmons when in his wolven form better than to anyone else.

There was also one other rather large detail that he hadn't been told by Grif before though that Simmons personally considered extremely important to know.

Silver was absolutely _deadly_ to them. It was lethal. Wolvens died of silver poisoning when they came into contact with it.

When Grey came in later and shooed Kai out as Simmons needed to rest, the redhead felt his head buzzing from all of the information he had learned from her.

About the pack structures, the way they would interact, the Alpha and Omega stuff, and… most importantly, the blood moon.

Simmons had once asked Grif if it was true that wolven could turn normal humans to wolvens. He had denied it back then.

Why? Why had he said no?

It obviously was possible. And a wolven wouldn't just forget about the fact that he was able to turn

someone should he be asked about it.

Was it maybe because Simmons and Grif hadn't known each other for so long back then? Was it because he was reluctant to tell him about this trait as they had merely been starting to get to know one another then?

Starting to bite on his fingernail, he picked up the book from his nightstand when Grey was gone and started to read about the blood moon. Indeed, he found a short chapter about it but nothing that would explain why Grif hadn't told him about that previously.

He shot a text to Kai:

 _Why hadn't Grif told me about the blood moon when I asked him?_

Her text response came to his phone immediately:

 _Because that would have frightened the living shit out of you and driven you away, duh._

 _He only wanted you to not worry and stay with him. You know how bad wolvens are when it comes to rejection._

Simmons started at Kai's answer and pondered what that possibly could mean.

Simmons had asked Grif that when they had known each other for only about two years. Did that mean that he had bonded to Simmons that quickly?

It was almost like Kai was able to read his thoughts. There was another text coming in:

 _He is one of the wolvens who bonds pretty fast when they find their very own mate. I'm pretty sure it had started soon after you two had gotten to know each other if not right at your very first get to know each other._

Which explained Simmons' question as he thought about earlier:

 _So he did it to protect me?_

There was a short answer to this from Kai, indicating that the discussion was over for her:

 _Pretty much. Btw: Dex just finished dinner._

Simmons was putting the phone away just as the door opened and Grey came in with a tray with food, Grif in tow.

Grey looked rather pissed while Grif's features lit up as he saw the redhead sitting up in the bed.

"I brought you food." The woman informed him helpfully, before motioning in annoyance to Grif a second later, "This stubborn idiot here didn't want to get shooed away."

Simmons smiled before answering, "That's okay. I don't mind having him here."

"If he tries anything funny, I'm going to dissect him." Grey looked at Grif, who replied to her threatening glare with a cocked eyebrow and a nonplussed expression.

She put the tray down on the table that the laptop had been lying on before and left the infirmary again.

Simmons dug into the food seconds later, only now realizing how hungry he really was.

Eating the vegetables, he could see Grif's longing glance for the dessert on his tray.

Chocolate pudding.

Simmons was pretty sure he already had his own share and other portions too as other inhabitants tended to give Grif dessert more or less voluntarily by this point to avoid him either begging for it from them later or stealing it from their plates when they weren't looking.

He sighed. This guy was a bottomless pit for any kind of food, particularly of the sweet variety.

Grabbing the cup along with the spoon on his tray, he held it out for Grif, "Here. Take it, fat-ass."

Seeing the cup floating towards him, Simmons could see the wolven's eyes light up with anticipation for yet another dessert.

"Thanks, buddy. Sweet stuff wouldn't be good for you anyway."

Simmons snorted, taking in another forkful of food, "I've actually never had the possibility to try any of it out for myself as you always get my dessert."

"That's not true!" the Hawaiian protested, half of the cup already empty.

"Then name me one time you didn't get my dessert." Simmons replied dryly, starting to cut into the meat.

"Uh…" Grif muttered, licking his spoon while thinking hard on the topic, "Uh…"

"See? You don't remember one because there have never been any cases." Simmons stated matter-of-factly, putting a forkful of rice in his mouth.

"Hey, you're the one who is always giving me your food. If you were a wolven, the ultimate way to show affection is by feeding your mate!" Grif retorted, again digging into the rest of the dessert while Simmons nearly choked on his food.

Feeding one another was a sign of affection amongst wolvens? So did that mean that Grif took the sharing of his food as a sign of affection from the redhead towards him too?

He fought heavily to not choke on his food for real, gulping it down before sucking in that air that his lungs were demanding just then urgently.

"'S'up?" Grif looked almost concerned just then, "You gonna choke on the dry stuff here?"

"No!" Simmons squeaked, coughing before answering with a normal level to his voice a second later, "No, I just tried inhaling to say something while eating."

Grif huffed, "As I said. Dry food."

Simmons was pretty sure it wasn't because of the food, but Grif didn't seem to care currently now that he knew Simmons wasn't actually choking as he was cleaning out the pudding cup with his fingers to catch every little bit of the pudding before putting it back on the tray.

"Thanks, buddy, you saved my life." Grif groaned, leaning back in the chair and patting his tummy.

Simmons felt his face heat up again. God, why did he have to behave like a schoolgirl with a crush just now!? Argh!

"I'm sure you would have lived even without having my dessert." Simmons replied sarcastically.

"You wanna try that out? I'm sure as fuck that it wouldn't end well and would leave me hungry and starving." A mischievous grin appeared on the wolven's face, indicating he was enjoying the playful banter they were able to keep up even though Simmons felt like a jitterbug at the moment.

"I'll pass. So long as you leave me the rest of my food so I can get sated. If you start taking that too I'm putting you on diet." Simmons stabbed the fork towards Grif's tummy, making his statement clear.

Grif whined. How a human throat could make that kind of sound was unknown to Simmons.

"But, Simmons! Being hungry is torture! I need food to live!"

"Yeah, you need food." Simmons agreed as he shook his head, "But not as much as you are stuffing in to your face currently."

"Are you saying I'm fat?" mock offense at the suggestion appeared on the other man's face.

"No!" again, Simmons gave what sounded like dying-hamster-squeal, "I just said that you could live on much less food than you might expect. It might even help you."

"So I am fat." This time, the hurt showing on Grif's face was real.

Great, Simmons had managed to put his foot in his mouth once again.

"No, you are not fat!" Simmons protested, hurrying to explain, "You're just, uh…"

"I'm fat." Grif finished the sentence for him, voice flat.

Simmons shook his head violently at that, "No, no, no! You're not fat. Just… well cushioned." Simmons tried weakly to defuse the situation, "You're great the way you are. I don't care about your weight."

The redhead laid the fork down to lean over, and rest his hand on Grif's. He had his arms crossed, only one of his hands really being in reach of the redhead.

The wolven startled a bit when he was suddenly touched.

Soon the offended expression on his face began do disappear until it vanished completely, only to be replaced by a soft smile and a chuckle.

"And I thought you were going to leave me because of that."

Simmons coughed lowly, having had too much awkward from his talk with Kai today to really freak out anymore at Grif's comment about somehow potentially breaking up.

"No, I just made a very bad joke. I'm sorry." the redhead explained, squeezing Grif's hand gently.

The wolven's smile got even softer before he looked over to the food on Simmons tray, "You better start eating your food again before I eat it, nerd."

Simmons rolled his eyes with a fake exasperated groan before turning back to his food.

"You're such a fucking lardass!"

Grif laughed in response to Simmons' comment.


	25. Chapter 25

The next day, Grey threw Simmons out of bed by the time the sun had risen. If there had been a window somewhere close by, one would surely have seen the sunrise through it at that exact moment.

Simmons had missed watching the sunrise, actually.

Normally he would watch the sunset, but occasionally he was able to watch a sunrise here and there.

That would be one of the first things he would make sure to do when finally back in his room: he would watch the sunset today in the evening at least.

Grey had ordered him to get up and stand there for what felt like an eternity only in his boxer briefs while she examined him with the strange device she once again had on her head.

Jensen had tinkered something together for her which made it possible for her to see Simmons even though he was invisible: she had talked about a device that made a lot more spectrums visible than a human eye would normally see.

Simmons hadn't really understood it at the time as he had been heavily drugged when the conversation had occurred right after one of Grey's sedation-heavy examinations she had been forced to do in order to examine him properly before Katie had developed this device.

But while he knew there was a reason for her doing so given what he had been through, the whole situation was freaking Simmons the fuck out.

Hell, he was standing there completely naked save for his boxer briefs hanging somewhere in the middle of the air with Grey pulling and pushing at his scarred skin, examining and lessening the scar tissue in one-go while talking to herself and giggling sometimes like the lunatic she was.

Simply standing almost naked in front of a woman made the redhead want to drop dead and never rise again in general. Even more so when the woman in question was the rather crazy doctor they had.

His face felt hot and he nearly panicked just trying not to think about how his face felt like it was burning just then.

Since the incident, he felt panic rise in his chest whenever someone mentioned fire or he thought about anything along the lines of flames or burning. Which is why he rather preferred thinking in his mind about his face feeling hot instead of thinking of it feeling like it was on fire, as though it was burning hot.

When Grey finally, finally was over with her extremely embarrassing and disturbing examination, she gave him the okay to dress once more and get ready to move out of the room.

Putting all of his belongings on the service trolley, he decided take a shower and brush his teeth before Grey showed up with his breakfast. That would be the last meal he would have here in the infirmary.

Coming out from the shower, he noticed that he was finally able to shower and clean his body without feeling any pain.

He dressed hastily and put the rest of his clothes on the service trolley where his school things were resting.

There were also the books about the wolven on the trolley that he intended to put back once he was released from the infirmary.

His feet dangled off the edge of the bed while he sat on it, happily munching on his breakfast. There was no Grif around for once begging to get a piece of Simmons' dish so he could eat it in relative peace.

When his plate was empty, Grey got his tray and informed Kimball that he was ready.

In the meantime it was around eight in the morning so most of the inhabitants of the Sanctuary were awake. There were some nocturnal inhabitants, but many residents would be up by this time for their own breakfasts.

The door opened five minutes after eight with Kimball coming in. She looked as elegantly dressed as always, although her clothing style was more of that of a business woman than one might expect would belong to a woman who was hundreds of years old. Often one would get the mental image of someone being dressed similarly to when they had been born and raised when they heard of Abnormals who had much longer lifespans.

But that was definitely not Kimball's style. She always adapted to the actual time period she was currently living in whether that be in terms of the clothing people wore, the way people spoke, or the technology that was used.

She took a seat beside the redhead's bed, looking quickly at the place where she suspected Simmons' head to be given the body imprint on the mattress before she spoke, "It is good to see that you are feeling better and that your wounds are healing nicely."

"I'm glad too." He admitted, "I'm still feeling exhausted pretty quickly, but I feel much better than before."

"I'm glad to hear that too. I hope the remaining wounds will continue healing as satisfyingly as the others already have." Kimball remarked, a fond smile again appearing on her lips when she looked at the redhead.

Simmons nodded before another question popped into his mind, "How are the others doing? I mean Matthews, Bitters, Kai, and everyone else?"

"They are all doing well," Kimball replied with another soft smile, "Their wounds had already healed some time ago with everyone being back to their duties and helping out wherever I can use some extra help too." She explained, her smile widening as she spoke.

She cleared her throat, causing Simmons to stop before he voiced his next questions and listen to her, "I came to you to talk to you specifically about your injuries."

Simmons felt his body stiffen, although he kept his mouth shut and didn't say a word to Kimball as he listened to her attentively instead.

"Dr. Grey told me that your wounds are healing extremely well and that you are doing better with each passing day. Which is why I came today to check on you and release you from the infirmary since you're feeling so well. The rest of the wounds can heal just with you staying in your room and being careful to not overburden your body." Kimball explained, adding in a second later, "You will only have to drop by here on a regular basis for check-ups. Grey, myself, and you will all come up with an acceptable schedule for when you have to show up."

"Understood." Simmons replied in an almost military-like tone. He sat on the bed with his back straightened, relief flooding through his entire system.

He finally was permitted to leave and get back to his room! To see the sun again and get out of the horrible hospital-stench down here.

"You are free to leave, although I would prefer the trolley to be brought to your room by someone else instead of you pushing it all the way yourself." Kimball told him.

"We can cover that."

A new voice cut through the room, causing both of them to look up. In the doorway stood Wash and, to Simmons' huge surprise, Grif!

The wolven immediately entered the room and padded over to Simmons, nudging one of his hands resting on Simmons' knee with his snout.

When Simmons petted the head of the huge wolven and scratched him behind his ears, the wolven wagged his tail even more and panted happily.

Wash entered the room too, nodding to Kimball who had gotten up from her chair as she turned to Simmons once more, "Well then, Simmons, you are cleared to leave. Just make sure to be careful, okay?"

"I will, thank you." Simmons replied calmly, getting up from the bed.

He immediately felt slightly dizzy, his hand searching for the wolven's fur. Grif looked up to Simmons with a questioning glance.

The redhead shook his head slightly, a smile on his lips, "I'm fine. A bit weak, but fine."

"I'm glad to see you're doing better, Simmons."

Looking up, he could see the werecat smiling at him.

Simmons was surprised that the wolven and the werecat got along so well, but he guessed that it was a case of how with some special circumstances even "enemies" could get along.

Speaking of the "enemy," or more accurately, speaking of the werecat…

"Wait, your ears are gone!" the redhead blurted out, trying to look for the feline ears normally found in the Freelancer's fair blond hair.

A smirk appeared on Wash's lips, "My tail too. I'm old enough in werecat terms to turn fully human now."

The wolven beside Simmons snorted but shut up immediately when the redhead hit his shoulder lightly. This might also explain why Grif wasn't really that focused on going after the man anymore. He knew that Wash was a werecat still, but since Grif wasn't seeing the typical physical cat traits being exhibited by Wash anymore that may be causing his instincts to chase him to lessen.

Anyways, seeing both of them standing there made the redhead smile. He was happy to have such good friends who decided to show up to check on him when he was being released from the infirmary.

"Do you have a day off?" Simmons asked the cat, who only shook his head.

"No, I'm going to work after I drop your stuff off in your room." Wash informed him, "Given the situation, I suppose I should get going with that."

"Yes. Thank you, Wash." Simmons smiled and nodded, "I think I should get going also, so Grif can get to work too."

The wolven looked up to the redhead with a questioning grumble at that, but Simmons didn't notice it as he was already listening to Wash again.

The Freelancer seemed rather confused by Simmons' remark.

"Didn't he tell you?" the werecat asked.

"Tell me what?" the redhead asked, now blinking with a confused expression crossing over his features as well.

Wash blinked again before getting a hold of himself and answering while quickly looking to the wolven standing beside the redhead: "Grif had taken a leave from work today and for the next two weeks. He had too much overtime from the last few months due to working extra shifts when they had a lot to do after they received the additional order from Kimball to provide enough wood to rebuild the Sanctuary. He actually wanted to spend this time with you."

Simmons blinked. And blinked again.

He looked down at the wolven who replied back with a questioning glance of his own as Simmons asked, "You took a leave?"

The wolven nodded, which was quite a strange motion for a wolven to do in the first place, before again starting to wag his tail.

A huge smile exploded on Simmons' face at that, "Thank you very much. I actually wasn't really sure if I wanted to be alone right now."

The tail wagging became more intense and the panting started up again, clearly showing that Grif was happy about Simmons' appreciation of his actions.

"Well then, shall we go?" Wash asked, taking the trolley and starting to leave once Simmons nodded.

The redhead started slower, still feeling exhausted pretty fast. He took step after step carefully, stopping for breaks whenever he felt like he needed one.

They weren't even out of the section where the infirmary was located and Simmons had already needed several breaks. The redhead heard the wolven grumble after some time of this.

He looked up to Simmons, and then turned his head so he was looking to his back, only to again search for Simmons' eyes.

"You want to carry me up to my room?" Simmons asked.

Panting happily, the wolven nodded his head and lowered himself down a bit to give the redhead a better angle to climb up onto his back.

Simmons decided that Grif was most likely right about the fact that they wouldn't get anywhere at the rate with which the redhead was walking on his own.

For once, the redhead didn't fight the wolven's decision like he normally would just to start another of the arguing banter moments that they both enjoyed so much.

When Simmons patted the wolven's shoulder, he got up and started padding towards the elevator.

The shoulder patting motion was a sign to Grif that Simmons was on his back and sitting safely so he wouldn't fall off the wolven's back once he got up. It was the sign they had developed so that Grif would know that he could either start walking or that he should increase or decrease the speed he was currently moving with.

Indeed, it would have taken hours for Simmons to walk the distance to his room on his own as he still was feeling rather drained and exhausted, but, thanks to Grif, they were standing in front of his room in no time.

The trolley was already in his room near his desk, with Wash long gone.

Simmons climbed down from the wolven's back and walked over to his bed. He actually didn't really mind having the wolven around.

When he reached his bed, he almost laughed. This fucking mattress was still lying beside his bed, ready for Grif to sleep on.

He hadn't put it away and Simmons wouldn't fucking dare to put it away now.

He had become so used to the fact that the wolven was around him that he wouldn't dream of putting the old mattress away anytime soon.

Sitting on the mattress, the redhead soon felt the wolven settle beside him.

Looking around, Simmons actually noticed a duffel bag beside the sideboard with loads of Grif's clothes sticking out of it.

The redhead laughed at that, "You already moved in here?"

The wolven only huffed in reply, gently grasping the back of Simmon's shirt with his teeth and pulling him down onto the mattress.

It was clear what the wolven wanted to tell him: "Lay down and nap with me."

Simmons laughed lowly when he settled beside the wolven, pulling up the blanket and cuddling into the pillow lying in wait for him.

"Let's have a nap." He told Grif, "What do you think?"

Grif hummed happily at that, his eyes already beginning to drift shut.

Simmons reached over, scratching the wolven behind the ear that was closest to him.

The redhead soon heard a contented hum coming from the wolven's throat as he kept up with the petting until Simmons himself fell asleep too.


	26. Chapter 26

During the next few days, Simmons slept most of the time. He showed up every day at the infirmary with Grif insisting on carrying him there during the first two days since he moved back to his room.

On the next two days following that, Simmons was able to walk there on his own.

Being in the comfort of his own room, together with Grif, made sleeping and relaxing somewhat easier for him than it had ever been when he had been down in the infirmary.

It wasn't really all that surprising then that he was restoring his energy faster than while he had been there as well.

He had just come back from his check-up for the day with Grey announcing that she would stop treating Simmons' wounds with the glandular secretion of the moon dragon and would start beginning to only soften the scar tissue with some kind of weird spell of hers.

He felt so good, much better than he ever had during these last weeks.

Checking the clock, he saw that it was time for lunch.

Simmons spontaneously decided to drop by the cafeteria to get himself and Grif some lunch.

The wolven would wait for the redhead to go to lunch together with him. It had always been like that even before the accident.

They were always going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner together whenever the two of them did not have important work to do.

He was fortunate. Kimball gave him an exception and allowed him to take the plates to his room. This was a rather rare occurrence as Kimball often insisted on everyone sitting together at least for their meals. It was to mingle, to see each other, and, most importantly, it was for Kimball to see how everyone was doing.

Considering the situation at hand, Kimball could understand why it was that Simmons said that he would rather prefer having lunch with Grif in his room alone as he still didn't feel like facing so many people in one room.

He had actually tried it before, but the second he had walked into the dining room there had been people staring and almost everyone began talking to him all at once: asking him how he was doing and if he remembered and what had happened.

It had soon gotten to be too much for him, Simmons feeling rising panic beginning to shrink his field of vision down as his mind replayed one single thought: Get the fuck away from here!

Grif told him later that he had smelled the panic roll off of Simmons in huge waves then, and that it had almost choked the wolven right where he was standing beside the redhead.

 _He had laid a hand on Simmons' sound shoulder, allowing him to focus on the contact and calm down._

 _Although Simmons had felt like jumping through the roof when he had first felt the contact, he felt much better afterwards when he was able to relax once he noticed that it had only been Grif's hand resting there. The panic had retreated a bit, making it possible for him to at least breathe again._

 _Shooing the people away, Grif had led the redhead out of the mess hall and back into his room. When they arrived there, Simmons had felt safer and the panic slowly starting to fade away._

 _In Simmons' brain there existed a massive, jumbled heap of thoughts. He wasn't able to form a coherent one until Grif had gently pushed him onto the bed and ordered him to follow his lead._

 _Minutes later, Simmons then felt how the air finally began to stream back into his lungs as his body started to be able to once more calm down both from his erratically beating heart and his head now fighting against the panic._

 _Grif had left the room a few moments later and returned soon after with a service trolley and two dishes with food._

 _He told the other man that he had asked Kimball if they could eat their meals together in Simmons' room, as it didn't seem to wise to force Simmons to go to dinner with everyone else currently. He might need a less harsh acclimation to everything than the steadfast 'throw-him-in-the-cold-water-bucket' method given what had happened._

 _Grif returning to Simmons' room with food made another of their trademark rounds of banter take place._

 _Simmons pointed out that Grif not only checked with Kimball because of him, but also probably because he didn't want to waste the possible opportunity this provided the wolven to eat in bed. He was a lazy asshole, after all._

 _Grif responded to that by saying that he had two hobbies: napping and eating. So why wouldn't he not try to connect the two if an opportunity came about for it?_

 _Simmons had rolled his eyes at that, remarking once more to him that he was a lazy fat-ass which caused Grif to grin in return and comment back that he was a lanky nerd. One who would get even lankier because he was just about to eat Simmons' food if he would rather banter than eat it himself._

 _In the end, Grif had once again gotten Simmons' dessert although the wolven would never eat too much of Simmons' food in actuality as he wanted to make sure that the redhead was well-nourished._

 _He might be a lazy and gluttonous fat-ass, but he wasn't someone to endanger the life and health of someone he held dear._

Opening the door, Simmons pushed the trolley into the room.

Simmons could see the wolven lying on the bed on his side with his limbs stretched out. He was sleeping soundly.

"Hey fat-ass, time for dinner." He called out, unable to keep himself from smiling slightly at the sight.

Napping and sleeping really were Grif's favorite past-times, which was probably the reason he was still sleeping just then.

Stirring awake, the wolven lifted his head with a bleary expression crossing over his features.

This bleary expression stayed there until the wolven smelled the food. He practically shot up from his lying position.

"Ah-ah!" the redhead stopped the wolven with a waving gesture of his hand just as he was about to throw himself onto the food, "First, you need to change and get decent."

The wolven growled at that in annoyance but complied to the redhead's request all the same.

When Grif walked over to the desk that Simmons had converted to a dinner table moments later, he stretched his limbs. "Man, Simmons! I already could have eaten and been napping again!" he whined.

"So?" Simmons didn't even bother to look up at the wolven while he put the dishes on the table.

"So?" the expression on Grif's face was one of mock disbelief, "I could have used my time much more efficiently!"

Simmons raised an eyebrow at that in mild amusement, "By eating like a slob and then leaving me, the injured person here, to clean up your mess?"

Grif looked over to Simmons with an unreadable expression, but soon dismissed whatever the thought was that had crossed his mind just then to ask another question instead, "Were you the one to get the food?"

Simmons decided to only shrug in response, "Grey had just finished up my examination so I decided to drop by the kitchen on my way back here and get some food. Take it as a little thank you."

For some reason, Simmons was rather relieved just then that he was still currently invisible as his face again began to turn red when he thought about what Grif had told him some days ago in the infirmary. That the biggest way to show affection amongst wolvens was to feed them. Uhm, yeah…

He hadn't done that for that type of reasoning or anything, but he just had to think about that conversation just then!

It was just logical that it was easier for Simmons to get food when he was on his way back to his room instead of returning and then letting Grif walk the same way he had just gone minutes before. Besides that, the fat-ass would have eaten a portion of his food already in the kitchen before taking a second meal together with two desserts back to the room!

Coughing awkwardly, Simmons sat down and began eating his food. Grif was already seated, but he hadn't started eating yet.

"So you really brought me food." He muttered just then, "Wow. I am flattered, Simmons. I don't know what to say."

First the redhead wanted to reply with another snarky comment, but he halted when he noticed the absence of something in Grif's voice with that utterance.

There had been neither bite nor venom to what he had just said, nor was the typical sarcasm Grif was known for in it.

Looking up, he could see Grif's face displaying lots of different emotions.

He looked happy and pretty damn touched.

Actually, Simmons halfway expected the wolven to start crying just then.

But on the other hand, this was definitely fucking uncharacteristic for the wolven.

Anyways, he looked like he was just incredibly happy at the prospect that Simmons had brought him food.

"I…. Uh…" Simmons stuttered, realizing that the wolven really was joyful about what he had done and not teasing him for it, "It's… o—okay."

It wasn't, but he didn't know what he should say otherwise as he had no clue what to do in regards to the chaos suddenly brewing in his mind and heart just then at the image of Grif's happy face.

"But you should start eating now or I really am going to eat it." He remarked instead.

Simmons wouldn't, of course, but it was a nice chance for once that he could jokingly tell Grif that.

The wolven blinked before he started chuckling, "I'd like to see you try. You wouldn't even get close enough to touch it."

The redhead smiled in return, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Remember that whole thing about me being invisible?"

Grif's grin widened a notch, "You're invisible but you still smell. I would track you down before you're able to move a step."

Simmons huffed at that, "It wouldn't be that difficult for me to be able to do the same to you too, you slob." He teased.

"Maybe, but I can do something to counter that. You can't." Grif shrugged, "I can track you down no matter what you try to do to cover up your smell. Your nerdy stench clings to you."

"Uh-huh, then your laziness should be considered an overwhelming stench too." Simmons remarked.

Grif seemed to be enjoying this newfound banter between the two of them, "Well, I have to maintain my reputation around here as a slob."

Simmons rolled his eyes, "I am rather surprised that you are putting effort into anything."

"What was that about how I should start to eat before you ate my food instead?" Grif jokingly recalled, "You better hurry up to make sure that I don't do that myself."

Simmons snorted, but didn't bother replying. Instead, he started to eat since Grif really was almost done with his own food by this point and he was more than likely to beg for food later.

When Simmons noticed that Grif was already finishing off his dessert, he didn't even bother waiting for the wolven to ask for the redhead's own and quietly pushed it over to him.

The receiver of the food hummed in grateful acknowledgement to the action as Simmons had somehow managed to teach him to not talk with food in his mouth at this point by withholding sharing dessert with Grif in the past until the other man was asking for it without food in his mouth.

He took the pudding cup and started to clean it out too while Simmons was still slowly working through his main dish.

When he was finally done with that, Grif was already finished with both his dish and two desserts. He had been waiting patiently at the table for the redhead to finish.

Tidying up, Grif insisted on bringing the stuff back to the cafeteria as Simmons looked as if he was liable to fall asleep again at any moment.

That fucking secretion really was draining him, though Grey had already informed him that it would still take up to two weeks for him to fully recover enough to stop using it to help accelerate his healing process.

Simmons decided to again hit the hay and doze until the wolven reappeared.

In the end, Simmons ended up out like a light before the wolven was even on his way back to Simmons' room.

When Grif returned later, he could see the redhead lying on the bed. He was huddled up in his blanket and sleeping soundly.

With a smile, he leaned down and placed a kiss on Simmons' temple, his hand gently stroking over what would be Simmons' flaming red hair if it were visible again.

Lying down beside the redhead, he felt how the sleeping figure beside him moved slightly when the mattress shifted with the addition of Grif's weight to it. Slipping under the blanket, the wolven let Simmons cuddle up to him before adjusting the blanket and wrapping his arms around the small waist of the lanky figure resting just then in his arms.

He again placed a kiss on the redhead's forehead before the wolven closed his eyes too to take a long nap.

He actually enjoyed the time he was spending here in Simmons' room, even though they were sleeping most of the time.

Firstly, Simmons had to sleep as he was still often feeling drained on account of his body needing most of his energy for his recovery. Both his physical and psychological recovery.

And besides, napping together with Simmons like this was one of the best things he could imagine ever doing, even more so when the redhead was cuddling to him like he was just then and looked as if he was completely at ease with both himself and the world.

Sure, the wolven had noticed the slightly changed behavior of the redhead at some points but he chalked it up to the accident. He heard that lots of people tended to change their behavior and character more or less dramatically after such a traumatic event occurred in their lives.

However, so far Grif hadn't noticed a strong change. The most noticeable change in his behavior was that he was avoiding any kinds of fire and was actively trying not to even mention the word while talking, even when that meant doing some impressive word gymnastics to describe something.

Grif had noticed that, but he didn't comment on it.

It was only natural that Simmons would try to avoid anything having to do with fire, even when not being able to remember what had happened to him exactly. His subconscious seemed to remember and that was enough to cause the redhead to avoid anything concerning fire.

The second big change was in his sudden calmness. Grif couldn't quite pin that on anything yet because Simmons was still often freaking out about almost everything, but there were moments here and there now where Simmons reacted to things a lot more calmly than he would have ever done before.

For example, he had way more trouble getting him flustered during their usual teasing banter. Before the accident, that had always been much easier to do.

Simmons also seemed to be more or less okay with himself now. That he was the way he was and he accepted that.

Before the accident, he had often struggled with the way his body was. He had often complained about his body being too lanky, his hair being too red, his skin being too fair and therefore getting burned easily, and a whole list of other negative commentary about how he looked.

Ever since the accident, he hadn't heard the redhead complain about that at all. He actually had expected for him to be understandably upset about the scars the second that he was coherent enough to be so.

But what happened instead was that he got a Simmons who was more at ease with himself and accepting of his body.

Grif had to admit that he had been pretty fucking relieved when he realized that Simmons had calmed down to such a degree that he could put up with Kai and get past the fooling-around-stage his sister often put up as a defense mechanism of sorts around others until she knew that they accepted her special character.

Due to problems that had occurred during her birth, Kai wasn't exactly like every other girl. She often had to face rejection and even hostility from others who did not know her. Which is why she had developed this whole acting dumb masquerade: it was to shield herself and to test people in the process.

When she was sure that someone would accept the way she was, she would show them piece by piece her real self. She could be pretty smart when it came to all sorts of social matters. She might have some troubles in terms of her scholarly pursuits because she had difficulty at times understanding those subjects, but she had always been able to read people like an open book.

When she was sure that someone truly did accept her the way she was, as Simmons had done during the time since he had woken up after the induced coma he had been put under, she would slowly start to show her real self.

A lot of that had come about between her and Simmons simply because Simmons had gotten as calm as he had and was able to put up with her special personality quirks.

It ended in the wolven accepting him too. She had even started to tell and show him more and more of the world that she kept locked away from others behind her mask.

Grif knew his sister. She wasn't half as dumb as she acted to be. However, that whole act was something they both knew how to play to its full extent.

While Kai was playing the dumb girl, Grif preferred playing the lazy asshole who would drive away everyone around him with his snarky comments and sarcastic-yet-cynical comebacks.

Only people who were willing to put up with his shit and the way he acted would gain his trust and slowly begin to see his real self.

Like Simmons, for instance.

Grif actually was very happy that Simmons got along with his sister so well now. It was a huge step in making his dream of having one pack together with Kai and Simmons even more plausible.

The only problem with that really was that Simmons was a human and not a wolven.

Okay, Grif could turn him but that was something he was definitely struggling against doing. He hated attacking people in general, even less so when his instincts were in charge and not his logical human mind that was capable of at least restricting his wolven self from doing something he would probably regret later.

During the blood moon, he knew wouldn't be able to restrain himself and that made him incredibly uneasy.

He would become a raging, tearing beast that would bite and hurt anything or anyone that attempted getting too close to him. Even if it was his very own mate and he could endanger him to the point of possibly dying.

It was actually even worse if the person close by was his mate because his instincts would be practically screaming at him to bite and turn him into a wolven to form a pack together with him.

To lengthen Simmons' life so that he would be able to live as long as a wolven.

To make his very own mate a fully realized part of the pack and live life in the wolven way.

Grif sighed at the direction his thoughts were spinning in.

All of this fucking thinking only made him get a headache, it didn't solve any of his problems!

Napping always seemed to solve problems better than nights spent lying awake and thinking about shit ever did.

Yawning, he pulled Simmons' sleeping figure closer to his chest and again placed a kiss on his head.

During the whole time that Grif had been thinking, he had begun threading his fingers through Simmons' hair repeatedly. He had noticed before that Simmons seemed to like that motion and it was rather calming for Grif to do so too for some reason.

Now that he was slowly but surely falling asleep finally himself, the threading motion slowly began to lessen and stopped completely once Grif dropped off into slumber as well.


	27. Chapter 27

Grif woke up the next day to the feeling of missing something. He was lying alone and felt somewhat incomplete.

That was rather strange in and of itself, and then a sudden thought crossed his mind as he remembered what had occurred the night before and why he probably felt as he did.

Shouldn't Simmons be lying there too?

Only he wasn't…

Blinking his eyes open, he could tell that Simmons indeed wasn't lying next to him.

"Simmons?" Grif muttered, still feeling rather sleepy.

He heard steps coming from outside the room in the hallway. They were coming closer until the door opened and closed without anyone apparently entering. Grif, however, knew better.

He knew that Simmons had come in. Considering that he had been outside, Grif assumed that the redhead had needed to use the restroom or something.

"You already up?" Grif mumbled, looking over to where he suspected the redhead to be though he didn't bother to move any more than necessary.

"Yep, it's already ten and I couldn't sleep anymore. I didn't want to wake you up…" Simmons didn't finish his sentence and stood awkwardly in the room.

Grif knew he was doing so rather awkwardly because he could practically smell the uncomfortableness radiating from Simmons just then.

"I see." He yawned, "So you're going to study then?"

"I guess. Maybe. I'm going to try to catch somewhat at least." the redhead replied, already reluctantly moving over to the desk to start spreading out his stuff.

"Fine, nerd. But if you don't really want to do that yet, why not go back to something way better?" Grif grinned, "And by that, I mean napping. You don't want to join me again?"

"Lazy-ass." He sighed and Grif could almost imagine him shaking his head, "No, I really couldn't sleep anymore. If I lie around anymore then I know I'll just get a headache, so it's best to be productive and study." Simmons muttered, choosing not to comment on the matter any further.

Even though Grif went back to dozing, he didn't allow himself to fall asleep completely. Instead he rested there with his eyes closed, always keeping an open ear to what Simmons was doing in order to be at his side should the redhead need him for anything.

During the next couple of hours, things were pretty quiet except for the occasional shifting of the pages on the desk along with some muttered curses and other vocalizations that Grif couldn't quite catch entirely. He figured it all had something to do with Simmons' studies.

When it was finally time for lunch, Grif got up and went to fetch food for both himself and Simmons. He forced the other young man out of his studies to eat something, and while Simmons seemed grateful for the break he also seemed his usual workaholic self and was a bit reluctant to step away from his books completely without a lot of coaxing.

When they finished and Grif left to bring the dishes back, Simmons had already gone back to his studies.

The next couple of hours following that were an exact copy of the previous ones. Grif dozed off on the mattress again while the redhead continued to study—watching others hard at work always seemed to cause him to become drowsy.

However something felt off again after even more time had passed.

Opening his eyes, Grif saw Simmons staring at a picture in one of the books he had gotten from Kimball to help him with his studies.

He knew the redhead so well by now that he always knew where he was and could figure out what he was doing even when Simmons was completely invisible.

In this particular situation, he could tell that Simmons was sitting there as still as a statue and staring at something in the book.

And that worried the fuck out of him.

Grif got up and walked over.

The closer he got, more details he picked up about what was going on with Simmons.

Slowly but surely, panic was starting to come off of the redhead in waves. It had begun to reach such an overwhelming point that the wolven soon felt like suffocating himself just from being in close proximity to the nerd.

Simmons' breathing had become ragged and short by this point.

"Simmons?" the wolven asked in a surprisingly unsure voice for him, not really knowing what else he should say or do.

The situation was so off that he didn't know what to say or how to react to it. He had never experienced such a heavy panic attack from the redhead. Normally his instincts would tell him what to do or at least give him a lead, but not this time apparently…

The second problem in this whole situation was that Simmons usually would react to Grif getting closer like he was doing now. Simmons would often prefer in these instances to be around him or talk to him, focusing on the wolven's nearby presence in order to ground himself.

But this time he was staring down at the book, utterly fixated by it. His world had obviously shrunk down to just whatever was on that picture.

Curiously, the wolven looked over Simmons' shoulder down to the book. He felt his heart stop for a moment at what he saw there.

Shit, this was fucking bad!

Residing on the page was a picture of a fire elemental.

It also showed a person standing in the middle of the image. They were completely engulfed in flames, the picture showing someone burning to illustrate a fire elemental using their ability.

It actually reminded the wolven of how Simmons must had looked when he had gotten hit by the wall of fire from Caboose in a stomach-churning, heart-wrenching way.

Grif's bad feeling became a whole lot worse just then.

He couldn't even properly finish any of his own troubling thoughts when shit in the room suddenly hit the fan at very high speeds.

Simmons suddenly started rubbing at his left arm as if he was trying to brush something away or was trying to extinguish an imaginary fire that was eating away his clothes.

The rubbing and brushing motion got worse and more frantic with every passing second—as if Simmons felt there was more and more of whatever it was that he felt needed to be brushed away quickly.

Simmons also started to try to and somehow get away from the mental fire, resulting in him falling off of his chair with a loud crash.

Simmons didn't seem to notice that he fell.

He was rubbing even more frantically now, and Grif began fearing that the redhead would actually set his own clothes on fire just by rubbing at them at the hastened rate he was going.

"Simmons calm down!" Grif exclaimed, suddenly snapping out of his daze once the redhead had fallen off of the chair.

Panic began to rise in his chest at this behavior, especially since Simmons wasn't even being responsive to him at all at this point.

There was no reaction still.

Fucking shit, this was bad.

"Simmons, please." the wolven whined, "Calm down! You're going to hurt yourself!"

Still no reaction.

He didn't know what he could do with Simmons apparently being unable to even listen to his voice at the moment!

What he ended up doing instead was reaching out and grabbing both of Simmons' hands to make him stop rubbing his arms as if the redhead wanted to rub away his own skin and flesh.

It was a weak attempt and he feared that he would force Simmons deeper into his spiral of panic rather than out of it by touching him—but he honestly had no idea what he should do and he was panicking a bit himself by this point.

The young male's head snapped up, but Grif had the feeling that Simmons was actually looking more through him than at him.

He was stuck somewhere in the past. He was seeing the pictures of something that had already happened, not what was happening right now and Simmons couldn't seem to make the mental images stop that were torturing him.

"Simmons, stop it! You're scaring the shit out of me!" Grif tried again, his voice now definitely pleading.

There still seemed to be no reaction to it on Simmons' part.

There was a change in his behavior again, however.

The redhead stopped struggling against Grif's grip, instead he started to just tremble horribly.

He was shaking so badly that Grif felt as if he was quaking with him as he pulled the redhead into an embrace. The poor guy was shaking as bad as a fucking earthquake!

Simmons was trembling like a leaf: he was sweating and panicking still, and didn't seem to be able to find his way out of his personal horror even with Grif holding him close and telling him that he was okay.

That he was safe and that nobody would be able to hurt him again.

Normally that would work, but not in this instance. And that knowledge made Grif's own level of panic rise, although he knew that he couldn't afford to lose his senses just then.

It wouldn't do any good to panic now when Simmons needed him.

But it was definitely a new and rather nerve-wracking notion that Simmons wasn't reacting to him and that did make Grif want to freak the fuck out despite knowing that wasn't a good idea at the moment because he was so worried.

When the wolven felt like Simmons probably wouldn't freak out anymore for the next few seconds with him moving around, he grabbed Simmons' cellphone. It was lying on the desk where Simmons studied.

He shot a short text to Kimball that only said one thing:

"HELP!"

He wouldn't have had the time to write more anyways as the trembling from Simmons became worse a moment later. The redhead additionally started to make strange gagging sounds in the back of his throat that Grif wouldn't have actually noticed if he didn't possess better hearing as a wolven.

"Oh fuck!" Grif cursed, frantically glancing around to find something to hand Simmons just then, "Hold on a second, won't you?"

He let go of the redhead and crossed his room, practically running to grab the trash bin. Luckily there was a bag already in it to make it easier for the cleaning staff to take the garbage out.

That bag would have to do the trick right now as he didn't have any time to arrange anything else.

He arrived just in time to thrust the bin into Simmons' hand as the redhead started to vomit.

The room became filled with the awful smell of gastric acid and the distressing sounds of Simmons retching and coughing as he emptied the contents of his stomach into the bin.

The stench was horrible, even more so for Grif's sensitive nose. And beyond that, the noises were so awfully painful that they made Grif want to howl sympathetically in order to showcase just how horrible he felt even hearing them.

It was nearly the same sensation he had felt when Grif had found the redhead back then on the deck on top of Donut's pool.

Pained, tortured, and overall just horrible.

The door opened and Kimball came in, her alarmed expression turning into an even more heavily worried one when she noticed what was going on.

Turning around, she called out an order that Grif didn't quite pick up given what was happening in the room still to someone (most likely Carolina) before entering the room and kneeling down beside the wolven holding the still-retching redhead close.

"What happened?" she asked sharply, trying to observe the still invisible redhead encircled in the wolven's arms.

Grif was pretty sure that Simmons' stomach was empty of all of its contents by this point, with him only continuing to retch because his head still had the instinctual thought that there was something still left in his stomach that he needed to get rid of.

Unfortunately, neither he nor Kimball had any water with them to give to Simmons.

"I don't know!" Grif whined in return, the panic he felt now almost as bad as the panic still radiating in waves from Simmons, "He wanted to study a bit after lunch and when I woke up having a really weird fucking bad feeling, I saw him staring at a picture in one of those books!"

He pointed with a jerky motion of his head over to the desk.

Kimball got up and quickly looked at the picture of the fire elemental in the tome that still rested open on the desk before closing the book for good measure.

"What happened then?" Her tone was still sharp.

"He—he started rubbing at his left arm as if he had ants crawling on it that he wanted to brush off, and then he fell off of his chair." Grif shuddered himself at the recollection, "Then he started trembling and puking. I was able to bring him the bin just in time before he started retching!"

Someone else entered the room while Grif was telling her what had happened, Kimball sitting beside the two of them and watching Simmons worriedly.

The retching had stopped, but Simmons was still trembling like a leaf.

Grif pulled him closer to make the redhead lean against him in order to be something of a brace for him.

In order to show Simmons that someone was there for him and that he would be protected.

"What happened anyways!?" the wolven demanded, looking at Kimball with big, round, baby blue eyes filled with worry and fear.

"I can't tell you for certain, but considering what you told me and seeing that picture myself, I suspect that he remembered what had happened to him before." Her voice sounded rather strained and filled with concern as well, "It happened in such a way that it was akin to opening the floodgates so speak: all of those memories came crashing over him like a tsunami."

It wasn't very normal for the leader of the Sanctuary to speak so figuratively but considering that the situation was anything but normal, Grif figured it was only natural for her way to speak to be unusual too.

Grif nodded his head at that in understanding, still feeling awful and close to panic himself.

Kimball nodded quickly herself to acknowledge his response just then, looking up to the person who had entered the room some minutes ago.

It was Doctor Grey.

"What do you propose?" she asked the witch and doctor.

Grey's reply came quickly, though she spoke in an uncharacteristically calm and stern tone for herself.

She stood straight and professional, showcasing just how seriously she was viewing things.

"Leave him. We can't do more than Grif already did. I think it's probably for the best to leave the first aid in this situation to Grif currently. Too many people would just overexert Simmons right now." she explained, not coming closer and staying in the doorway, "He needs to have someone near that he trusts. Someone he feels safe and close to. Later on today or tomorrow, I propose we drop by and talk to him when he's calmer."

She shifted slightly before adding, "In his case, psychological therapy is highly recommendable given the trauma these memories stirred up. I would like to already start it tomorrow." She sighed, "It's important to not let him down right now in any way. He needs a tightly woven security net in this state. Someone needs to be around him all day."

"I'll do it." Grif blurted out, with Kimball and Grey blinking in unison at his sudden announcement.

The quiet following that made the wolven feel uncomfortable and forced him to add, "I'm around him anyways and I'm on holiday right now. So I'll cover it. I'll stay around and look after him."

There was another silence and Kimball smiled warmly.

Simmons' trembling had started to subdue at this point, the redhead leaning heavily against the wolven.

Kimball had wiped away the vomit from Simmons' lips and taken away the bin, only to replace it with an empty bucket that Grey had brought with her in case the vomiting started up again.

When Grey disappeared with the vomit-filled bin, Kimball again looked over to Grif and Simmons, "Okay, I'll leave you to take care of him then. If his state worsens, please call me and I will come immediately." Grif nodded and looked down at the redhead. He felt the young male's muscles starting to relax, the immense stress he had gone through minutes ago obviously draining him to the point where he would mostly likely fall into a dreamless sleep.

"There's one other request I have to ask of you, Grif." Kimball was respecting his desire to be called Grif instead of Dexter, "As soon as he is awake, I need you to inform me so that Grey and I can come over and check on his mental and emotional states. You heard that she would like to assess his situation and start psychological therapy as soon as possible since such heavy accidents leave their mark on the affected person."

Grif nodded again before adding hesitantly, "But I want to stay with him in case it gets to be too much. He'll probably feel outnumbered and stressed being alone with you and Grey."

Kimball contemplated the wolven's interjection while still kneeling beside the pair before nodding her head in response, "So long as you don't interfere I can accept that."

"I can't promise that I won't because I will if he starts to panic."

Despite feeling like panicking himself, his voice was firm and solid.

There was another silence, Kimball obviously not really happy with the way things had developed, "I would prefer you didn't as we might need to push him some in order to make him feel better."

Grif growled when he heard that.

Pushing Simmons to make him feel better? How idiotic was that!?

Simmons wouldn't feel any better by getting thrown back to that terrible day again and again! He wouldn't feel better if he became stressed out every day!

Kimball seemed to notice the resentment and protectiveness stemming from the wolven just then.

Her features softened somewhat, "We won't push him every day and not at the start of the therapy in general. Even less when everything is still so fresh for him. This pushing and trying to make him remember will take place over weeks, maybe months after today. However, this must be done. It's psychological therapy to get him to fully process what happened to him and to help him overcome it." Kimball explained gently as Grif slowly started to understand what she was saying.

This wasn't something you did for fun or because you wanted to. Kimball looked as if she was going to hate doing it already, even if doing so was weeks away from now. But both she and Grey really seemed to believe it to be necessary to help Simmons get over what had happened.

She had helped the two young wolvens when they had appeared on the Sanctuary's doorstep in the middle of the night when Kai had a bad cough that her older brother wasn't sure how to treat.

Considering what she had done for them and how she had helped to get Kai proper medical care at the time, Grif decided to trust her in this case as well even when it went against every instinct he knew.

"Okay, but I will be around nonetheless." He told her, "I will try not to interfere, but I might need to ground him so he won't lose himself in his personal nightmare like he did before."

Kimball again contemplated what the wolven had said. She was always someone who listened to the opinion of everyone in the Sanctuary and tried to find a solution that would be acceptable for everyone concerned in a given matter.

Sure, there were times where she needed to make decisions that at least one of the inhabitants involved in a situation wasn't going to be happy about but usually she tried her hardest to avoid such outcomes.

Grif was glad that she was such a good leader as he wasn't sure if he would be able to trust her so readily if she wasn't the way she was. She was a leader he could accept as his superior Alpha, speaking in strictly wolven terms.

She was the leader of the whole pack here, but Grif was allowed to have his own little pack in the Sanctuary so long as he accepted Kimball as leader.

After some minutes, she nodded her head, "Okay, deal. If I think that you're interfering too much, I will tell you but apart from that you're welcome to join the sessions as I'm sure all of this will help Simmons in getting better too."

Grif nodded again, feeling Simmons shudder against him. The poor guy must be feeling cold after sweating like crazy during his severe panic attack.

"Would you mind opening the window a bit when leaving?"

It was a bit of a rude dismissal, Grif knew, but he couldn't afford sitting here any longer with the redhead and get him sick. Simmons needed sleep and rest. And Kimball had seemed like she wanted to go some minutes before anyways.

The leader of the Sanctuary again nodded and got up. Before she left, she opened the window somewhat and wished them a good rest.

When the door closed, the wolven picked up the sleeping redhead and carried him over to his bed.

The bed probably was better than the mattress down on the floor where they usually slept. Spreading out the blanket and propping up the pillow under Simmons' head, Grif quickly went to his room to get his own blanket and pillow.

The pillow was for Grif, and the blanket was for Simmons if he felt cold still despite already having one spread over him.

When he lied down beside the redhead, Grif could tell that he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink with Simmons being as bad off as he was still.

This was actually worse than it had been when Simmons had been in the artificially-induced coma in the infirmary. They hadn't known if he would make it or not then, but at least in that instance Kimball had known what she might do to help for certain and how she could do it.

In this case she seemed just as lost as Grif was and that was freaking the fuck out of the wolven as he was going to help the redhead through this no matter what. Having no back-up if something happened as the other two people who could potentially help were just as unsure as him was really nerve-wracking.

He might have chosen Simmons as his mate, but he didn't feel like he could help him here at all even as he was compelled to do so because he didn't know what he could fucking do in this case!

Grif took in a shuddering breath.

No freaking out here and now, Dex. Simmons needs you and he and you both are going to be okay.

Spreading the second blanket over the redhead when he felt him shiver underneath the first one, he also slipped under those hot-as-fuck covers and pulled the redhead close.

He didn't care that Simmons was still stinking of sweat, vomit and panic, and that he soon would stink like he hadn't showered for years.

Simmons needed him to be close right now. And he needed Simmons to be close right now. To make sure that this panic didn't cause him to have a stroke or something, or to just be sure in case something happened again that Simmons was close by still.

Holding him in a tight embrace, Grif prayed silently to every god he knew that this would turn out as well as it had the last few times that things had become difficult for them. That they would be lucky once again.

Carefully, as if to not break something fragile, the wolven wove his fingers through the redhead's sweaty hair and easing out some of the knots he felt there.

He wouldn't be able to sleep, Grif knew, but he at least tried to calm his body and soul down as much as possible so that Simmons could sleep as soundly and as long as was possible. It was always difficult to sleep decently if the person closest to you is in some type of mental turmoil: you notice this subconsciously and your sleep becomes affected by it.

Grif knew it was like that as he always tended to sleep a lot less soundly whenever Simmons was in some kind of mental anguish.

This was one of the rare times that the wolven was not napping happily together with Simmons but counting the minutes until said person would wake up again. He was anxious to see if Simmons would still be the same after waking up and remembering everything that had happened.

Would Simmons still be Simmons? His Simmons? The guy he had bonded to and wanted to stay with forever? The guy that had become pack to him before he really realized it?

Or would a completely different Simmons emerge after some hours of sleep?

He didn't know, but he felt like this uncertainty was going to drive him nuts at some point.


	28. Chapter 28

When Simmons came to after what felt like only some minutes in his mind, he felt a completely different and odd sensation than he usually did.

His whole left side tingled strangely. He felt drained and exhausted as if he had run for hours. His whole body ached and felt like it was made of lead.

He felt Grif close to him, holding him close to his own body. It was a nice sensation, actually. He liked being close to the wolven in this way.

But coming back to the point, why was he feeling so drained and tired all of a sudden? Why did he have the horrible aftertaste of vomit on his tongue, and why was he feeling both sticky and cold?

Furrowing his brows, he thought about what had happened.

He had woken up in Grif's arms just as he had moments before. He had gotten up because his bladder was making its presence known with a rather unsettling feeling. Upon coming back from the bathroom he had decided to study, he ate lunch with Grif, and then he had studied again.

But that was then… His memory became pretty fuzzy whenever he tried thinking about the next events that happened.

Right, he had seen a picture of a fire elemental now that he thought about things for a few more seconds.

Nothing new actually since he had seen the picture countless times before during his research, but it had triggered something within him this time.

He had stared at the picture for what felt like an eternity. He had the notion that he had heard Grif say something, but his whole being had been too occupied with what the picture had triggered.

It had been a picture of a fire elemental setting free the fire that they were the master of. However, suddenly the picture had begun to change into something else. He had seen himself in the image, had felt the ugly sensation and pain of fire hitting his left side and burning it horribly, and had recalled how he had fallen into the pool.

He had actually gone through the whole event of how he had been burned that he had forgotten up until then. He had gone through all of the thoughts and the emotions of that event.

Then he had fallen off the chair, or at least he suspected that he had as his butt hurt and he had been on the ground when he was more aware of what was going on in the present again. That he had been rubbing his arm the whole time wasn't something he had even realized when he was in his reverie. He had been trying to extinguish the fire with his bare hands, but it was rather futile since the fire existed in his memories.

When he realized the whole extent of what had happened, he had felt his stomach churn and he threw up horribly—retching everything in his stomach out and seemingly anything his soul needed to get rid of too.

He began trembling again.

Those memories were horrible and he once more felt like he was getting overwhelmed with them trying to recall what had happened before.

Feeling as terrible as he did just then, Simmons did the only thing he knew that helped calm him every so often.

He grasped Grif's shirt tightly, burying his face in the wolven's chest.

This action woke Grif up. He jerked, immediately tightening his embrace around Simmons in response.

"Simmons?" Grif asked, a bit uncertain.

The redhead hummed in response, not really wanting to say anything though the humming sounded more like a sob.

"Are you awake?" the wolven asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." His voice sounded raw and horribly unsound.

Grif sat up, pulling the redhead with him as Simmons was refusing to let go of the wolven's shirt and put anymore distance than was absolutely necessary between himself and Grif's reassuring broad chest.

Grif didn't seem to mind, resting an arm around Simmons' shoulders when they were sitting up and keeping the redhead close as well.

"How are you feeling?" Simmons could still hear the uncertainty in Grif's voice.

Why was he so uncertain? Well, Simmons supposed it made sense considering that Grif had been here the entire time given what had happened earlier and that the wolven hadn't probably known why Simmons had reacted as he had.

"I…" he almost had said 'yes' but he knew that was a rather blatant lie that Grif probably would call him out on too, "I… don't know."

That was as close as he could get to saying how he felt currently. He didn't know, truthfully.

In a way, he felt relieved that he remembered and yet, at the same time, he didn't know how he should think or feel about this odd sensation he was experiencing now.

"You don't know…?" Grif asked, more than just a bit surprised at that response.

"Yeah I—I feel confused. I don't know if I should be happy that I remember again or not." Simmons replied, his voice somewhat muffled by the wolven's shirt.

"But you aren't going to throw up again, are you?" Grif's sounded heavily worried at the prospect.

Simmons shook his head, a strange movement with his face pressed against the fabric of Grif's shirt. "No, I guess I'm fine on that front." He told Grif, "But I could use something to drink, actually. I feel dehydrated and I need to get rid of this awful taste in my mouth."

There was a moment of silence before the wolven slowly exhaled, "Okay, I will go and get you something to drink then." He told him before another thought crossed his mind, "But I will also have to inform Grey and Kimball that you're awake. They want to talk to you in order to assess your mental state or something like that. Said they wanted to help you recover."

Reluctantly, the redhead let go of Grif's shirt to allow him to get up while he remained seated on the bed, "You mean they want to come by now?"

Grif nodded, pulling a face before explaining in more detail, "I am not happy about it either, but they insisted as they were here when you were so bad off yesterday. They wanted to talk to you after you were able to sleep and recover a bit to check on what had happened and what all of this has triggered in that brain of yours." He stood beside the bed and seemed to be wait on some kind of a response from Simmons.

It took Simmons some minutes to process what Grif had just told him and think about it.

In the end, he merely nodded, "We don't have much of a choice, do we?"

It was strange: Why did he talk in the 'we' form just then instead of for only himself?

Anyways, Grif shook his head with a stern expression and pulled the redhead away from his confusion over his phrasing choice for that question, "Not really, I guess. It's kind of a definite decision wrapped up in a request."

"Then I guess you should go and get her. Don't forget my drink though." He smiled flatly, trying to make Grif relax a bit by showing him that he was as okay as he was going to be through using the slight expression.

Grif's shoulders relaxed only marginally at the gesture, but that was enough for the redhead.

The wolven disappeared and Simmons pulled one of the blankets around his shoulders.

He felt cold, not only because he had been sweaty but also due to his body still being rather depleted of his energy reserves given his ongoing treatment and what had just happened.

He also knew that he felt somewhat cold and alone because Grif wasn't around. Simmons felt so alone right now that he would have loved nothing more than to get up and go search for Grif because he didn't want to be alone right now and feel as lost as he did.

After what felt like five years despite the clock informing Simmons rather unnecessarily that it had actually only been about five minutes, Grif returned with two huge bottles. One was filled with water and the other with Coke.

The water bottle was emptied of its contents almost completely once Simmons started drinking it because he was really fucking thirsty.

When he felt like he had finally drunk enough to satisfy his thirst, he took some sips of the Coke to wash away the horrible aftertaste lingering on his tongue.

He would have loved to have crashed again right away but unfortunately that was more of a pipe dream as the door opened with both Kimball and Grey entering the room with rather serious expressions gracing their facial features.

Grif offered them the chairs by the desk to sit on. They took their seats with murmured thanks before observing the redhead attentively.

The redhead started to feel uncomfortable and tried to avoid their gazes by looking down at his hands and shifting awkwardly where he was sitting.

"I hope you were able to rest decently at least given what had happened." Kimball started, looking worried and pretty exhausted herself, "I had asked Grif yesterday to inform us as soon as you had woken up so that we could assess your psychological state to help you process what happened given how you seemed to have remembered everything so suddenly." the leader of the Sanctuary explained in her usually well-worded way of talking, "At least that is what we had suspected happened to you."

She paused for a moment, waiting for Simmons to process what she had just said and nod when he had gotten it.

This whole meeting was something that Simmons knew he couldn't really influence in any way, shape, or form. He would have to go through this session, whether he liked doing so or not.

The bed shifted beside him, indicating that Grif was sitting down. He was still in his human form, obviously deciding given the situation that it was better to not change back.

Simmons was happy that Grif was staying with him and not leaving the room like someone else might have done by this point. He didn't know if he would be able to sit through this session all alone without having someone around to ground him and have his back.

He needed someone to be there with him, someone he could rely on and feel safe around because he didn't feel like he would be able to be alone for too long in the wake of the sudden onslaught of memories and experiences he had just gone through.

"How do you feel?" Kimball asked then, with Grey being oddly quiet and stern in comparison to her usual vibrant personality.

"I don't know." Simmons answered honestly. He still hadn't had the time to properly ponder exactly what it was he felt about everything.

"What do you mean by that?" for the first time since they had started, Grey spoke up.

"I don't know." He shifted in his spot again, "I didn't have time to decide yet if I am happy about remembering or not. I guess that's something I'll need time to figure out."

"So you do remember then?" Grey asked again, hastily writing down notes in a scrawling handwriting that only she would have any chance of being able to read later.

Simmons nodded. Fuck, he had forgotten that he was still invisible, "Uh… yes, I remember."

He retreated a bit on the bed because he was once again feeling uncomfortable. Grif caught him by lying an arm around his shoulders and shooting a warning glance to Grey.

"Would you mind telling us what happened?" Kimball asked after a rather long silence passed to let Simmons calm down again. Her tone was still gentle and kind.

"I, uh…" Simmons muttered lowly, "I saw the picture of a fire elemental. And suddenly I saw myself standing there, burning. E—everything came rushing back and overwhelmed me. It made me throw up and feel horrible when I started to realize what had happened to me back then."

It was a pretty short explanation of what had happened, but an accurate one nonetheless.

Grey's pen scratched over the paper pad she had on her knees and Kimball merely nodded.

"So do you feel better now then?" Grey asked, though the question was a bit silly given the circumstances.

"I… I feel more relaxed since I was able to sleep it off somewhat." Simmons replied, adding as an afterthought, "Although I can't really say either way considering the whole remembering everything angle. I don't know. It was… what happened was shocking, but I feel like it happened to someone else in a way, even though I remember it now and know it was me."

He shrugged a bit helplessly, unable to explain things any better. The motion was only visible due to Grif's arm moving up and down across his shoulders.

"That is perfectly normal and another self-defense mechanism of the human mind. It will take some time for you to fully process what had happened, and maybe you will never be able to accept the memory as your own and will always think of it as the memory of someone else instead of it." Grey explained with a rather unusually gentle and patient tone. As she was talking, she was still writing down notes on her pad of paper.

"I—I see." Simmons murmured, kneading his fingers nervously and feeling just how incredibly tired he had become once more.

"I think it is best to let you rest now." Kimball seemed to have picked up on Simmons' rather exhausted tone in his voice and reacted on it in the way that Simmons had hoped she would, "I do propose that we come back tomorrow to start the therapy session. Although you seem rather stable at the moment, I don't want you to have a breakdown because we left you alone when you needed us the most."

Simmons nodded again, the motion mirrored by Grif still sitting beside him and rubbing soothing circles into his right shoulder.

"I think that's for the best. I know well enough that it sometimes takes a while before the full realization hits you." Simmons replied, sitting there in a slightly hunched over posture.

"Okay, then it is set. Dr. Grey and I will come back tomorrow." She reaffirmed, "Until then you are free to do what you please, although I ask you to inform us in case you feel like you are starting to any kind of breakdown or need other forms of support, all right?"

"Yeah, okay." He smiled, "T—thank you, Kimball."

She smiled warmly when she got up and grabbed Grey's arm to yank the other woman up as well, "You're welcome. Now, please, rest well and we will see you again tomorrow."

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye." Simmons saw the two off.

Kimball did the same, pulling a complaining Grey out of the door as she had wanted to psychoanalyze the redhead further.

Actually, it was maybe better that the two of them were leaving now as Grey seemed to be falling back to her usual disconcerting behavior now that she seemed to view Simmons as somewhat stable for the moment. Which was something Simmons didn't really need right now.

When the door closed once more, Simmons could feel Grif intensifying his grip on the redhead. He gave into the incessant pulling of the wolven, leaning his head on Grif's broad and surprisingly soft shoulder.

"What are you going to be up to now?" Grif asked with the same insecurity that Simmons had heard from him already before Kimball and Grey had shown up.

"I was thinking of going to have a shower and then probably hitting the hay again. What do you think?"

Simmons replied, although he didn't move away from the wolven's side just yet.

"Sounds like a good idea." Grif gave a slight nod at the idea, "I guess I'll do the same. See you again here in twenty?"

"See you again in twenty." Simmons responded with a smile, forcing himself away from the soothing embrace of the wolven.

He searched his closet for fresh clothes and made his way over to the door. He still felt tired, but he was making his way to the showers at a steady pace. Not as fast as before the accident, but it seemed to always be getting better at least.

Before he left his room, he stopped and looked over to Grif, who was searching through the duffel bag he'd brought into Simmons' room just then.

"Hey, Grif?" Simmons asked, causing the wolven to look up from the duffel to where the voice came from, "Just throw your shit in the washing basket from now on whenever you want to stay here."

There was something lighting up Grif's eyes at that remark that Simmons couldn't properly name, "Actually, I wanted to move in here as you don't seem to be able to live on your own and not get in trouble whenever I'm not around."

Simmons coughed awkwardly when he realized just what the Hawaiian had told him, "Uh, let's talk about that when I feel better, okay? I don't think I'm accountable enough right now to make such big decisions."

"Right, you're a bit out of your mind. Now go and get your shower." The shadow of Grif's snarky smile appeared on his lips at that teasing remark.

It made Simmons smile. That was something he had missed seeing more of a lot during all of this time when he hadn't been feeling so well. Grif had always been so stern quite often throughout everything and not smiling as often like he usually would before.

"Oh… and, Grif?" the wolven again looked up at the mentioning of his name, "Two other things." Simmons said more from a spontaneous idea than a really well thought-out one, "First: don't be so stern all the time, your face will get stuck that way when you frown constantly."

He could see Grif stare at the redhead with a baffled expression at that, but Simmons continued without missing a beat, "And second: stop being so fucking insecure. I'm the same person I had been before so don't treat me differently, okay?"

Grif blinked again, completely taken aback by the rather uncommon way the redhead seemed to be acting before answering, "Okay." He smiled slightly again as if putting to practice the first part of Simmons' remark already, "If you say so, nerd."

Simmons couldn't help but chuckle at the rather lame reply from Grif, though it was more or less a response that rather fit the way they treated each other and better than anything else he probably could have heard at that point.

It was like music to his ears, in a way. As if Grif was telling him that everything would be okay with that single remark.

And Simmons was determined to make it true: that everything would be all right.

Opening the door, he slipped out of his room and called back over his shoulder, "You better get going, fat-ass. You're going to be late if you want to take one of your usually long-as-fuck showers."

"I'm still faster than you, nerd!" came the shouted reply before the door shut and Simmons started to walk towards the showers with a quiet laugh.


	29. Chapter 29

It took weeks until Simmons was stable enough again to get close to fire without freaking out and trying to run through closed doors.

The therapy actually helped a ton with Grif always being close to the redhead throughout the whole experience to help ground him.

Kimball and Grey now started to talk about everything when Grif was further away or in a room close-by. They were trying to get Simmons stable enough to fight down panic attacks on his own, in case Grif wasn't around when he was having one in the future.

It was highly likely that Grif would be working or not around when Simmons had a panic attack at some point in the future, which is why Kimball wanted to teach Simmons how to get them in check on his own.

He often felt drained, although he felt better with every day that passed.

The treatment from Grey's weird healing spells was reduced to a minimum, as most of Simmons' scar tissue was as soft and less pronounced as Grey was able to get them.

Additionally, the redhead started up a light workout regimen to get his body to its old physical state—if not better.

Much to Grif's dismay, Simmons often spent hours learning instead of slacking off. When not studying and preparing for school, he helped the Freelancers with their ongoing project.

York had looked pretty weirded out that first time when the keys of the keyboard for Simmons' laptop seemed to start pushing down on their own with a text appearing on the screen as if it had been typed by an invisible hand.

Which was actually rather true with the whole invisible hand stuff if one thought about it.

He was thinking about how to phrase a part of his essay that he was in the process of writing for his soon-to-be coming graduation.

Compared to the last graduation he had gone through about two and a half years ago, Simmons felt much calmer in general.

Maybe it was because he knew that he was well-prepared for it this time around, or maybe it was because he had just become calmer in general.

Simmons didn't really care. He was calmer and that was a fucking blessing in his point of view.

Upon finishing the last paragraph of his essay once he felt okay with the wording, he closed the file and sent it to Kimball to look over. She held a master degree in all three of the biological fields of study that Simmons would graduate from in less than six months. She knew what to write about for them and what people wanted to know.

Actually, he was following in her footsteps so to speak and was possibly even at some point in the future going to be taking over one of the branches of the Sanctuary.

Stretching his sore legs, he heard a low 'ping!' coming from one of the safe computers in the library.

Checking it, he saw that the algorithm had found something. Copying the result and sending it to Kimball too with a quick notice, he then studied it.

There was the address of a research facility in the dark-web. It had come under the scrutiny of activists for the rights of Abnormals called ARA, short for Activists for the Rights of Abnormals, for researching and conducting experiments on Abnormals. The group even went so far as to accuse the facility of hijacking the victims they need for the research when the Abnormals in question weren't willing to accompany them voluntary.

Anyways, given that note in particular they seemed to have found some things quite unusual and unsettling concerning the facility.

Leaving the library, he went over to his room to clean it up a bit. Grif's influence made the room look like a mess constantly even though Simmons cleaned it almost daily to combat that.

Since they had last 'talked' about Grif moving in, it had become something like a given in both their lives.

Although nothing had ever been truly settled, Grif seemed to be of the opinion that this was a done deal already and therefore he was okay to move in.

Hell, he had even started sleeping in Simmons' bed together with him and was only using the mattress when he preferred being a wolven.

It wasn't like Simmons actually minded. He liked having the wolven around.

After getting past the initial block of memories in his mind, he had started remembering more and more about what exactly had happened to him before. Which also came about with a certain realization about his feelings for the wolven that ironically had hit him at the exact same moment as the fire had.

He smiled ruefully. If he hadn't forgotten what had happened or had realized it earlier, they would both be much farther by now.

But he had learned that looking back wasn't going to be helping the future any—which was something he had also picked up from Grif.

Thinking on it, he maybe should tell Grif at least once what it was that he felt.

That Grif seemed to feel deeper for him than just a friend was pretty obvious. All of this cuddling and kissing wasn't something you did with a friend, no matter how bad off or traumatized he was. Even Grif's almost chewing through the door to the infirmary when he wasn't allowed to visit him, as Kai had told Simmons later, was something you wouldn't do for a friend but for a mate instead.

He felt his face heating up again at the thought of Grif possibly having chosen him as his mate. It sounded terrifying and wonderful at the same time.

Terrifying because he knew what he could trigger if he rejected the wolven or did something unforgivable in terms of the pack, and wonderful because the possibility of the wolven liking him back was something that made butterflies start fluttering around in his stomach and caused a happy smile to spread over his face. It made him unbelievably happy in a way he wasn't sure he could ever accurately describe.

After finally having cleaned up enough to make his room look halfway passable, he set up the laptop on his desk and started listening to music. He decided to lie on his bed and enjoy a rare moment of slacking off that he treated himself to from time to time.

He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander.

His mind drifted to think about Grif and the possible feelings he could have for the redhead, Simmons analyzing everything about the situation and what he could maybe do to find out if Grif really felt more for the other man than simple friendship.

After some moments, his thoughts wandered even further away and at some point they settled inside of his head. He took it as an opportunity to imagine his mind as a huge hallway filled with lots of doors.

There were doors that look like doors to a child's room, mostly holding dear memories of his childhood years. There were doors beaten up and bruised with the memories of his abusive dad. There were neatly cleaned and intact doors, the ones of his life after arriving here at the Sanctuary.

Then there came a charred door, obviously the door to the time when he had gotten so badly burned.

The next few doors were white, similar to the door to the infirmary and looking slightly fuzzy as if someone was looking at the door in question through wrongly adjusted glasses. Those were the memories of his time in the infirmary when he had been pumped full of pain medication up to his hairline.

Then came other doors. There were gray ones and brown ones. The gray ones were the ones from before he had remembered what had happened. The brown ones were the ones from after he had remembered everything.

He had opened them all in the therapies together with Kimball and Grey, save the charred one.

This one was closed and locked, Kimball suggesting that they only open it following another therapy session.

He didn't care, actually.

He wanted to go through his memories again on his own. He thought that he would be strong enough.

He flashed through his memories of the fight until he got to the point where he closed the door behind the enemy troops in the heart of the Sanctuary.

He knew that time was running out to get to the pool. How quickly time was running out he realized fully when Carolina let Caboose out without him even being remotely close to the safe room.

Simmons had known only one way to save himself.

Get into the water.

Either you get boiled alive or burned. In the water at least your chance to survive the incineration was slightly greater, although more than half of the water from Donut's tank had evaporated due to the heat during and after Caboose's attack. How Simmons managed to pull himself out of the tank following that was completely over his head.

Getting out of the water, he realized something.

That he loved that godawful lazy fuck of a wolven. And that he wanted to see him again.

In that moment between conscious and unconscious, he realized a lot he couldn't name yet, save being in love with the lazy excuse of a wolven. And that he wanted to see him again. And he wanted to be seen again by the wolven. He wanted to banter with him and laugh.

Opening his eyes, he felt the bed tilt slightly. Looking over he saw Grif, looking at the dent in the pillow worriedly.

"I told you that your face would get stuck if you look like that all the time." He joked.

Grif blinked, taken aback by the unconventional greeting before grinning, "Maybe I should try a change in my image then? Be more serious?"

"You?" Simmons scoffed in mock disbelief, "Never. It's going to be snowing in July first."

The wolven chuckled at that before looking slightly concerned again.

"How are you doing anyway?" the Hawaiian asked when he seemed to be sure that Simmons was really awake.

"I'm fine. I just can't get visible still. It's annoying." A sudden sadness overwhelmed the lanky nerd, making him sit up and stare down at his still invisible hands, "I often feel like nobody is going to notice me. Not that it was much different before, but with me being invisible they don't see me even less now."

"Bullshit." Grif scoffed, taking a proper seat beside the redhead and making their shoulders bump together as they were talking. He didn't seem to want to touch Simmons any more than that due to the rather delicate subject they were talking.

He shifted slightly before continuing, "You aren't invisible. People might not see you exactly, but that's what humans are like. They're blind to their surroundings. That has nothing to do with you being invisible in any meaning the word could have."

"But—" Simmons began, but Grif cut him off.

"I think in this case it's like with dying." Simmons cringed as that was a rather macabre comparison considering that he almost had done that weeks before, "As long as at least someone sees or remembers you, you aren't completely invisible or dead. Those who don't see you or forget you can go fuck themselves. What is more important are those who do try to see and remember you. You know…"

Grif scratched a part of his head with his hand like a wolven would scratch before continuing, and the idiot actually didn't use his foot for it this time which was a surprise.

"Many here in the Sanctuary ask how you are. They can't see you, so they often ask me how you are and if you're around because they know me or Kai can find you. They are interested in how you are doing and how the healing of your wounds is progressing. They care." Grif explained, fiddling with a thread from his worn out-shirt and exhaling loudly when he seemed to have gotten to the conclusion of what he had been saying.

He turned around, his eyes shortly searching the room before they settled on Simmons' eyes. The redhead could see his nostrils widen when he subtly sniffed the air.

When the wolven was sure that he had Simmons' undivided attention and was looking directly in his eyes, he then said in a stern voice that made Simmons believe him immediately, "It doesn't mean you're unseen just because you're invisible. People still 'see' you. Just because they can't see you, they aren't going to forget you."

There was a long, rather awkward silence with Grif fiddling with his fingers uneasily as Simmons stared down at his fingers and pondered over what he had just heard.

He wasn't unseen just because he was invisible. People besides Kimball, Carolina, Grey, and Grif were concerned about his wellbeing and wanted to know how he was doing. So maybe Grif really was right that he might be invisible but wasn't unseen by the other inhabitants.

It sounded too good for Simmons to fully believe it. He wanted to believe Grif, and he wanted to try to believe in that statement as it wasn't the first time Grif had told it to him either.

A low laugh escaped his lips finally, "Okay, I will keep that in mind." Simmons said, noticing Grif looking over to him out of the corner of his eyes, "Thank you." the smile he had on his face then got even wider and more honest.

Grif's eyes widened for a moment before he schooled his expression in a bored one, "Yeah, yeah… whatever, nerd."

"Hey, you were the one having a philosophical moment akin to 'Why are we here?'." Simmons shot back at him.

Grif flipped him off at that, getting up from the bed and leaving the room after suppling Simmons with the information that he was going to take a shower.

Simmons, for his part, flopped down on the bed and closed his eyes again while thinking of nothing in particular for the moment.

He felt something going on in his subconscious, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Sometimes it was better to just let the mind wander without you trying to control its steps and finding out why exactly it was going this way or that at the end of the journey.

He exhaled deeply, spontaneously deciding to let himself 'fall' in a figurative way of speaking.

It was strange, actually. When he let go of all of the things he usually dwelled on or thought about, he suddenly felt something shift within his body and his mind.

Opening his eyes when he noticed the change, he sat up and looked around. He was still at the same place and his hand looked the same like always.

Wait a second…. His hand!?

Incredulously, he stared down at his hand. He had turned visible again!

He still couldn't completely believe what had happened, but he wanted to try it out. He turned invisible and visible several times, his smile getting wider and wider each time he managed to successfully turn invisible and visible.

When the door opened, the redhead hastily turned invisible and looked over to the wolven entering the room with his hair still dripping slightly.

"You haven't dried your hair." Simmons remarked, biting back the excited comment he wanted to make just then about him being able to turn visible again.

"So? Didn't feel like it." Grif replied, carelessly tossing the dirty clothes towards the washing basket in the room and missing it by an inch.

Simmons sighed at that: he would be cleaning up this mess tomorrow too.

"You won't be sleeping in the bed with wet hair." Simmons retorted, looking at the wolven with a slightly annoyed expression.

Grif was such a fucking slob sometimes.

"And what are you going to do? Make yourself larger so you don't leave me any space on the bed to sleep?" although his tone was biting, Simmons could see in Grif's eyes that he didn't intend on it being mean.

"No, I thought about drying your hair because I know you aren't going to do it. Now come over here." His voice was so calm it left Grif gaping at the redhead in surprise once more, only for him to subsequently nod and sit down on the bed next to the redhead without any more replies.

Simmons snatched the towel and shifted to sit behind the wolven, starting to dry his still wet black hair.

He knew that human-Grif liked to get touched at the place his wolven ears would be. Indeed, there was a content hum coming from the wolven at the motion.

When the redhead thought that Grif's hair was dry enough, he put the towel aside and laid his head on the wolven's shoulder.

"I actually want to tell you something." Simmons began, his hands coming to a rest beside the Hawaiian's hips.

Ocean blue eyes settled on Simmons' left side of his face as Grif regarded him, "And that would be?"

"I think," Simmons spoke slowly, "It would be better if I just show you."

Grif still looked over to Simmons before averting his eyes and looking over to the window where the sun was setting.

"Then go ahead." Grif muttered, obviously thinking Simmons would get up to show him whatever it was that he wanted to show him.

Well, not this time.

He grinned mischievously before stating, "Then you should be looking."

"Huh?" Grif turned his head to look at the redhead, before turning around completely and looking at the place where the redhead was.

"Just look and wait." The smile was now obvious in his voice.

Simmons closed his eyes, hoping that it would work out and Grif would still be looking. He knew that he could turn without any problem, however he decided to do so the same way that he had turned visible again some minutes before by letting himself 'fall' mentally and feeling something shifting within his body during the process.

He felt Grif taking in air sharply before muttering breathlessly, "No way!"

"Sure way." Opening his right eye, he could see the wolven staring at him. This staring prompted him to open the other eye, causing the wolven to stare even more.

"What is that?" he pointed at Simmons' eye, the redhead flinching as Grif almost pricked his eye.

"What is what?" the redhead asked. He felt pretty damn confused, blinking rapidly to find some kind of sense behind the Hawaiian's exclamation.

"Your eye!" Grif exclaimed, "It's red! It's fucking red!"

"Huh? What?" Simmons' voice immediately rose in pitch.

Grif got up and got out his phone to take a photograph of Simmons' eye and showed it to Simmons afterwards.

Indeed, his left eye had turned into a reddish brown color that almost looked completely red considering how fair the brown looked compared to the reddish tint.

He couldn't help but say the first thing that came to his mind at the sight, "Jesus fucking Christ, I look like a fucking cyborg."

Grif laughed in amusement, looking at the redhead really for the first time in quite a while, "Sarge would be so fucking happy to see you right now."

"Ugh, thanks. I'll pass." Simmons muttered, shuddering at the mental image of Sarge fussing over him because of his fucking red eye.

Grif again laughed that full belly laugh of his, shaking his head. When he calmed down, the laugh faded slowly away until there was nothing more than a fond smile on his lips.

"Anyways, it's nice to see that you're able to control your ability again." His eyes softened, and his smile became even softer along with them.

Simmons couldn't help but mirror the expression on the Hawaiian's face, "Yeah, I'm happy I managed to turn visible on my own again. That is a huge relief for me. I fought pretty hard to get to this point. But I couldn't have done that without you."

"Not without me?" the Hawaiian asked, surprised and looking at the redhead with widened eyes.

"Yep, not without you. I knew you would have my back whether I could turn visible again or not, and that you could still find me. Besides the thing you said before about the being invisible but not unseen made me realize that I really am a part of something now and not the outsider I had been before arriving at the Sanctuary." Simmons explained before adding, "And because I cared about you and what you said, I tried it again when you were showering and managed it."

Grif chuckled quietly, "That's why I love you, actually."

Simmons' face immediately flushed bright red at that, the change in his facial color pretty nicely displayed on his face now that he was visible again.

"You what!?" the redhead squeaked, noticing his voice again rising up in pitch and his face turning an even darker crimson shade.

Grif looked mildly surprised at the reaction, "I said I love you. Because you care and you are the way you are. Also, because you accepted me and Kai the way we are. I hadn't noticed it until the accident, but it became clear to me when you were in the artificially induced coma some weeks ago." the Hawaiian explained, playing the nonchalant asshole.

However, Simmons could see right through the mask he was trying to put up. He caught the nervous glint in Grif's eyes and how his eyes travelled around restlessly, how his fingers twitched like he wanted to play with them to lessen his nervousness but restrained himself from doing so.

It took some moments for what he had said to truly sink in with the redhead. When the full realization finally hit him, he couldn't help but start laughing uncontrollably.

He didn't know why he was laughing, but he just felt so happy and had the sudden urge to show his happiness by laughing.

Grif's expression changed slightly, now clearly showing doubt as to whether or not Simmons had actually just lost his mind in response to Grif's statement.

The facial expression actually softened when he heard Simmons' next words although the first few sounded like a heavy insult: "You're such a fucking lazy asshole: a cynical, sarcastic slob who doesn't care about anything other than slacking off and eating." He smiled, "But that's exactly why I love you."

"Heh, sounds like I made a wise choice then." Grif muttered, a light pink tinting his cheeks now too.

"Looks like it." Simmons replied as the red on his face intensified again, spreading up to the tips of his ears and down his neck to his chest.

Grif chuckled once more before muttering fondly and leaned closer to the redhead, "You're such a fucking nerd."

"And you're a fucking lazy-ass." Simmons replied just as warmly as the wolven had before, closing the gap between them by grabbing Grif's shirt and pulling him in.


	30. Chapter 30

He lay on a furry, warm spot in the middle of a little forest on a hill at the edge of Athens, a city close to Atlanta and, as of the information of ARA, the place where they held lots of Abnormals captive.

Actually, he couldn't decide if he should feel nervous because they were so close or stunned that they were so unabashedly building a facility close to the Sanctuary.

This place here could get mistaken with the Sanctuary so easily, it was even more important to take this one here down to keep the Abnormals safe.

Beside him, something moved. Reaching down, he pressed another furry part down, hissing lowly: "We haven't gotten our mark yet. Stay down!"

A growl was heard, showing clearly that waiting was not the strongest suit of the smaller furry wolven. Annoyed looking amber eyes looked up to him, Simmons only shook his head.

It was a bless actually that Kai would follow his commands without back talking – or much less than usually – and do what he ordered her.

Although this follow-Simmons-Orders-thing was a direct order of Kimball. And Simmons knew that Kai couldn't just ignore an order of her Alpha-Alpha.

Closing her eyes again, the bigger wolven Simmons was sitting on grumbled something, jerking with his left ear. Something was itching him there.

Reaching down, Simmons scratched the place and resumed looking down to the facility.

The happy hum he received told Simmons that he found the spot and helped the wolven a lot.

Kimball had decided to attack the facility about two weeks ago, ordering the different people joining the mission to organize their shit and the parts of the mission she gave them.

Simmons took over to organize the stuff Grif and Kai would have to carry as they left the Sanctuary for about a week to gather Intel and would return a week before the assault.

In addition, the redhead activated some of his internet contacts at ARA and in the abnormal community, gathering as much Intel as possible from the internet and the people having more knowledge about the facility.

Although it had been pretty difficult to get the information out of the guys without making clear that they were planning an attack on the facility and making them want to join in.

At the facility, he could see two figures, most likely Carolina and Kimball, York somewhere in the walls and hacking the lock while North kept their back from some meters away with his sniper rifle. His aim was unrivalled in the Sanctuary.

When Simmons had gathered all the stuff for the wolvens, he sat together with Jensen. Thanks to Kimball insisting on her taking notes on what she was tinkering, she was able to produce about three new sets of his invisible suit without too much of a hassle. They were all mostly maroon, his favorite color.

Besides providing the stuff for the mission, she also made some kind of carriage-bags for the wolven to carry them on their backs. The bags will get fixed with a belt around their bellies, actually looking like some kind of saddle.

Of course Grif had to beef about him being a wolven and not a fucking horse and that he won't accept to get saddled like one.

In the end, he complied when Simmons had enough of his beefing and simply ordered himto, when he turned to his wolven-form shortly before they left.

He still wasn't happy about the whole getting saddled like a horse thing, neither was Kai, but they seemed to accept it at least for the duration of the mission as they both realized that it was handy and important for them to carry stuff they might need later and the human part of the assault couldn't carry on their backs as they already had enough to carry.

The wolvens ears peeked up when the lock opened with a click and Kimball as well as Carolina snuck in. Soon after, Simmons radio cracked, followed by four long, one short and another long tap. The morse-code for OK.

Tapping on Grifs shoulder, he felt the wolven start to move and get up. Also his sister began moving and followed them suit.

Stuffing away the low-light amplifier, Simmons pulled out his pistol from underneath his suit and undid the safety before hiding it in Grifs fur. His hackles were raised, he obviously seemed to feel the eminent danger.

A short look to Kai proved that she too was on alert, her eyes attentive, her ears peeked up and her hackles raised.

All three of them didn't like the assault for different reasons.

Mostly because the last time they fought like that, one of them had gotten injured pretty bad.

This time however, Simmons was determined to bring at least all of the inhabitants of the Sanctuary out safely if not some of the Abnormals held captive.

Before they started to their adventure, Grif and Simmons had a serious talk about this whole issue.

Grif hadn't been happy that Simmons was joining the mission and that he didn't intend on forgetting about it when Grif asked nicely.

They actually had almost gotten into a real fight – Not like their usual banter – about this matter. In the end, Simmons had started compromising. This prompted Grif to do the same, in the end they made an agreement that Simmons would stay within Kais or Grifs reach so he would have a fast leave if needed to.

Sneaking into the building, Grif and Kai followed the leader of the Sanctuary.

Kai took the lead and showed where they would find the Abnormals held captive. Grif and Simmons followed suit, confirming the lead of the wolven.

Something was off, Simmons felt strange. He didn't know why, but something rubbed him off the wrong, way, just as it had when Felix came to the Sanctuary.

Looking around, he suddenly realized what was so off. There were no guards around. Didn't his contacts tell him that the building here was heavily secured?

"Kimball." Muttered Simmons, the leader of the Sanctuary nodded curtly. "I know."

Simmons grip in Grifs hair tightened. He didn't like what his instinct told him. It was strange. It was unsettling. It made cold shudders run down his spine.

There were too less guards considering the facility should be heavily guarded.

Clearing floor by floor, following Kais nose, they some when landed in a huge and long corridor.

North and York had joined their group, which made them seven people down there.

Their whole trail down to the hallway they were in now, they haven't met any of the guards. Sure, North and York were specialists in taking them out, but not even they are this good.

Something was off. Definitely.

Hopping off the back of the wolven, the redhead came to a stop beside Kimball, both of them having their weapons ready.

York started buzzing through the locks, opening door after door.

Most of them were empty, but indicating that there must have been someone living in there until shortly ago.

One of the doors clicked open, an awful screeching coming out of it. Obviously the inhabitant wasn't really happy to get his door unlocked.

Anyway. York was already opening other locks, buzzing through them. The Grif siblings also started roaming around and exploring the empty cells. Something seemed to have caught their eye.

"I can't shake off the feeling that something is off here." Muttered Simmons, Carolina on his other side nodding. "They knew we were coming and brought away the important Abnormals, leaving those they didn't use anymore here for us to find or to die.

"So we either have a mole in our Sanctuary or one of the informants is corrupted." Stated Kimball, Simmons making a mental note to check every of his informants again. And this time thoroughly with a detailed history of his life since birth.

Grif came trotting towards him, whining and pulling at his sleeve. Simmons noticed that he was unsettled and excited. He must have found something which made him excited and anxious at the same time.

"I shortly have to excuse myself. Something seems to be really important." Simmons smiled apologizing before nodding towards the wolven and following him when he turned around ant trotted towards one of the last doors in the hallway.

When Simmons came close, he already noticed the smell of wet dog. Either a hybrid of a dog or a wolven or…

… A werewolf.

When Simmons saw the massive dark wolven laying in the room, tied up at a chain, he stopped. He didn't knew the wolven, nor could have met her once. Yes, it was a female, considering the huge teats at her downside.

Kai beside her was wagging her tail back and forth, panting happily. The wagging got even worse when she saw Simmons entering.

Grif however, seemed to get even more nervous when he saw the black wolven again. He looked up to Simmons, as if needing his approval.

The redhead first had to think of what Grif might mean with this asking glance, before cautiously asking. "You want me to check with Kimball to take her to the Sanctuary?"

There again was this overly strange looking, human, nod of the wolven. Simmons looked over to the wolven, before asking one other question to his boyfriend standing beside him. "She's your mom, right?"

Grif didn't reply, whether by nodding or doing something else, but the glance Simmons registered Grif giving him spoke volumes. Simmons just knew by the look Grif gave him that he had hit bulls eye. Actually it explained a lot about the whole situation Grif was in momentarily.

He once had told him, that for a wolven, Family is the greatest good. So when your mom shows up after years of not having seen her, the wolven would be happy and would accept her right back in the pack again. In Grifs case, the human part however, wasn't so happy if he would find his mom again.

Simmons had the very strong suspicion that he would be angry about her leaving and letting him look after Kai. He would be just a tad happy too and he would be anxious because he wouldn't know how to react on her given his more animalistic and the conquering, more human side fighting in one body.

The situation at hand however made it pretty confusing and difficult for the wolven.

Simmons patted his shoulder to get his attention before he lowly spoke. "Is she able to walk?"

Another nod from Grif confirmed his question.

"Then how about we free her and get the fuck out of here first before we think about the if's and when's of her showing up again?"

The stretch of time until Grif answered was significantly longer this time than before.

He seemed to contemplate his request. Kai made her opinion pretty clear by growling. Grif just huffed.

When they would be human, Kai would chide Grif for being an asshole and that their mom would accompany them to the Sanctuary.

Grif in return would roll with his eyes and flip her off.

What a nice family…

Grif sighed, before again searching for Simmons eyes. When they met, the redhead only nodded before getting York to open the lock.

Five minutes later, the wolven was free and weakly came on his feet, only with the help of her kids. They took her in their midst and walked over to the group.

The group itself had grown of another member, a black haired guy having a quilt slung around his shoulders. He looked as pale as Church.

North and York just appeared with another Abnormal, a young woman looking slightly disheveled and… was she seriously floating!?

Simmons stared at the woman there, until he heard a voice in his head.

 _Please, stop staring, Simmons. She doesn't like it._

Simmons knew who it was and decided to think his answer rather than saying it out loud.

 _What is she?_

Simmons noticed the amused, but yet fatherly chuckle before North answered.

 _Her ability is telekinesis._

Simmons replied with a simple _oh…,_ turning back to Kimball, saying. "We really should get out of here."

Kimball actually opened her mouth to reply something, but was cut off by a droning honking coming every second.

"Fuck!" cursed Carolina loudly. "This is the self destruction!"

"Can we make it?" asked Kimball, already starting to herd the group towards the exit. The Grif siblings and their mom waited there.

"Not with the guys here!" replied Carolina, shouting loudly to drone out the horn.

"York, how much time?" ordered Kimball, the ghost shortly disappearing before coming back.

He looked heavily concerned. "Five Minutes!"

Kimball took a second before she calmly ordered. "Everyone, get out of here as fast as possible. The fastest take the lead. The slower ones stay with me."

York took the weak looking girl on his arms, making a spurt for the exit, followed by Carolina.

North helped the black haired guy, whilst the Grif siblings and Simmons helped the female wolven. Kimball took the lead.

The blaring of the horn got louder and more obnoxious with the time flowing by. As of Simmons counting the seconds, three minutes must be around.

They hadn't even reached the top story of the building! Simmons swallowed a panicking whine, managing to get the wolvens to hurry the fuck up and increase their speed of walking.

With this speed, they actually might be able to manage it to get out of the building in time! Simmons decided to allow a small glint of hope sparking up in his heart.

Just when they turned around the last corner, it would be a spring of 100 metres through the hallway to the exit actually, Simmons heard the first explosions go off. The whole building began to shake, dust and concrete raining from the walls and the ceiling, making the people fleeing cough and their eyes burn.

"Run!" shouted Kimball as loud as she was able to, everyone starting to run as fast as they could. Even the exhausted and mishandled wolven and black haired guy started to run as fast as their legs could carry him.

Just when the whole building began to shake and crumble under the explosions, they ran out of the building towards a huge black box wagon. The sliding door opened and all of them took a dive through the door.

It closed when the last one was through and the same moment the door closed, the driver burned rubber and peeled out.

The first minutes, it was quiet in the car.

It was until North began to chuckle. Within seconds, everyone was laughing uncontrollably, laughing until their bellies hurt and tears streamed down their face.

"Oh god, this was fucking god damn close." Wheezed York when he was able to breathe again somehow.

The people in the car all agreed, then again lapsing back into an amicable silence.

Simmons laid on the ground, squeezed in between Grif and Kai as wolvens laying there, curling around him and their mom tightly as if to form a protective cocoon around them.

Leaning back, the redhead soon felt his body rest against the comfortable and well known bulk of the Alpha.

He turned around to cuddle closer to the wolven.

Normally he would feel cramped being in a place like that, but this time, he actually enjoyed it.

Somehow, he enjoyed to be around the people he love the most, feeling that they were alive after such a close call.

Just in this moment, he wouldn't want to be in any other place than this one here.


	31. Chapter 31

It was close to midnight when the doors to the city's main hall opened and people meandered out, discussing vividly the presentation they had just heard.

A dark-haired man exited together with a dark-haired woman, a red-haired one, and a man in his best years with his hair already starting to turn gray.

The two women and the older man bid their goodbyes before they left the young man and got into a black Bentley. The car pulled out of the parking spot soon after, leaving towards one of the outskirts of Atlanta.

The young male waited by the doors, lighting up a cigarette and waiting for the last person to leave the main hall.

Indeed, a young man came out of the hall soon after. He looked slightly disheveled, his face flushed and his breathing still slightly off.

The young man breathed out a puff of smoke before crushing the stump and regarding the other young male now standing beside him who was currently eyeing him with a disapproving look.

"You okay there, Simmons, or are you gonna pass out in the next minute?"

The redhead beside the guy huffed in annoyance before he answered, "I'm fine, asshole. Just a bit tired from the presentation. I don't like having to talk in front of so many people."

A grin appeared on the wolven's face, "For being so fucking nervous and almost getting a stroke back there before the presentation, you did quite good." he replied.

Walking back to the old and beaten up truck that Grif called his own, Simmons couldn't help but admire the wolven walking beside him.

His boyfriend wore a new black tuxedo with an orange tie. For once he had even cut his unruly black hair and had styled it back with hair gel.

He looked unbelievably handsome like that.

"You gonna get in the car or do you want to stare at my ass all day long?" Grif asked, a wolfish smile appearing on his features.

"I— I didn't stare at your ass!" Simmons squeaked, hurrying to get into the truck in order to not give Grif anymore ammunition to tease him with.

Grif actually didn't really hurry to get into the vehicle, enjoying the view of Simmons climbing into his truck instead. That gave him a wonderful view of Simmons' ass.

He too wore a tuxedo with a maroon tie. His red hair was neatly styled and he wore his best pair of glasses.

Grif slammed the door to the driver's side closed once he was in the truck and started the engine. Once they had pulled out of the parking lot, they lapsed into silence.

Soon into the drive when they were out of the worst traffic, Grif lifted one hand from the steering wheel and rested it on one of the redhead's that were resting in his lap.

"Seriously, Simmons. You did awesome back there." Grif told him with a fond smile, gently squeezing the hand he held in his, "You looked all calm like it was perfectly normal for you to speak in front of such a big audience."

Grif signaled a left turn and drove down the street towards the Sanctuary.

"So you liked it?" the redhead asked after some moments, his cheeks taking on a pink tint at Grif's praise.

"It was fucking awesome!" Grif replied with a beaming smile, making Simmons reply with a smile that showcased the same amount of happiness that he saw reflected in the wolven's eyes just then.

Driving up the entry way to the Sanctuary, they parked beside the black Bentley and got out of the car.

Grif insisted on taking the stuff Simmons had used for the presentation. He led the way as they walked up to Simmons' room to put the things down.

Simmons seemed to want to flop down on the bed at that moment given what he'd just gone through, but Grif stopped him by taking his hand, "No time for napping yet. Let's go."

The redhead blinked, taken aback by the uncharacteristic remark from Grif but followed the wolven's lead without asking why.

He couldn't help but remark on the peculiarity of that comment though, "This must be something important for you to pass up an opportunity to nap."

Grif grinned, slowing his pace a little bit to let the redhead walk beside him, "Sometimes there are more important things to do than napping actually."

Simmons looked at him incredulously, "Uh-huh. And those things would be?"

"You'll see." Grif replied with a grin and a mysterious smile.

Simmons couldn't really put a finger on what was actually going on, but he decided to just roll with it for the time being.

He had gotten a lot calmer since he was with Grif. He more often than not decided to just roll with what was going on and he wasn't freaking out as much as he had been doing before anymore.

Okay, so when he had to do a presentation in front of approximatively two hundred people including experts from all around the globe coming there just to listen to him… He still got nervous.

He had just finished his second studies at the college in Teratology. His dissertation had caused such a big uproar in the community of the experts in that field of science that he was asked to hold a presentation that evening, the very evening after his grade was announced, to explain his dissertation to the expert scientists.

They seemed to be quite excited when Simmons had finished the presentation of his dissertation thanking with standing ovations.

Around ten of them had asked him right away if he wanted to work for them. They made him rather interesting job offerings, but he turned them all down. He gently explained to them that he already had a job and was intending to keep it. Some had accepted that response while others tried to persuade him to quit his current job and start to work for them still.

But his firm answer and Kimball appearing by his side to make it clear that she was his employer caused the last of the persistent ones of the group to shut up.

Fortunately, Kimball did say that they would still be able to borrow Simmons' knowledge when he wasn't too busy with working for her if he was all right with such an arrangement. She wasn't so mean as to keep Simmons' intellect only for her, though she would still be his employer.

With Simmons following Grif, they wandered through the halls and soon ended up in front of the mess hall. Opening the door, Simmons felt overwhelmed by the situation he saw in front of him.

There were people standing there, every one of them cheering a happy "Congratulations, Simmons!" when he entered with Grif. Above their heads was a huge banner. On it, in huge and colorful letters, was written: "Congratulations on your summa cum laude, Simmons!"

It was a long banner, which made it possible for the words to be written on it in huge letters. The writing looked as though the kids of the Sanctuary and Caboose had colored the letters while one of the grownups, possibly Tucker due to his flair for creative stuff, had designed the outlines for them.

The next few hours were a blur of emotions and impressions for Simmons.

Everyone who resided in the Sanctuary and who was not living in the high security vault area was there to celebrate his second summa cum laude together with him.

The kids as well as Caboose had orange juice to drink while the adults were given an alcoholic drink that was rather akin to champagne.

Tucker, Wash, North, York, Carolina, Kimball, Sarge, Lopez, Kai, Grif's and Kai's mother, Caboose, Junior, Church, Palomo, Jensen, Bitters, Matthews, and everyone else were all around him and enjoying the time they had together to celebrate Simmons' amazing achievement.

The sun was already rising by the time that Simmons and Grif were walking towards his room later on.

Kimball had given him a week off as a reward for his incredible marks. Grif, of course, already knowing about her plan had organized with his boss to get a week off too even though that meant that he had to go on unpaid leave for it. Luckily he still had enough holidays left to take.

Falling into the soft and comfy pillows on his bed when he changed into his sleeping clothes, he heard Grif rummaging around in the room before he finally lied down beside Simmons.

"How do you feel?" the wolven asked, moving around on their bed now.

"I feel…" Simmons started, stopping shortly and looking up to the ceiling as he pondered over the question he had just been asked a bit more.

"I feel… both overwhelmed and unbelievably happy. I… I can't really describe how I feel right now. Just… happy." the redhead summed up when he finally reached a conclusion.

Simmons could hear Grif huff with laughter beside him and felt him moving over closer to him. Simmons turned around too, accepting the offer and diving into the extended arms of the wolven. He snuggled close to the wolven's broad chest with a smile.

"I didn't know if you would actually like it or if it would overburden you." Grif muttered.

Simmons poked him in his ribs, making the wolven jerk a bit. Simmons knew that human-Grif was pretty ticklish by his ribs.

"I'm pretty stable right now thanks to Kimball, so if the presentation didn't overburden me any then I really don't think a surprise bash would be able to do so." the redhead replied, a smile appearing on his lips.

A low chuckle reverberated in the wolven's chest at that, "Right, you've really been lifting that whole nerd factor to a new level lately."

"Asshole." Simmons laughed, again attacking Grif's ticklish sides and making him squirm and laugh under the redhead's relentless attack.

"You're a fucking nerd, you know that?" Grif shot back when he was able to catch his breath once more after Simmons' tickle attack had finally stopped.

"That's why you love me, asshole." the redhead responded, a smile falling across his face.

"Strangely enough? Yeah, I do." Grif answered with a yawn, pulling the redhead closer into his embrace.

He obviously had decided by this point that it was time to sleep, at least on his end of things.

Simmons, however, was lying in Grif's arms still very much awake and letting his thoughts wander.

When they had gotten back from the mission, Grif's mother was immediately brought to the quarantine station of the Sanctuary. Grif and Kai didn't like it, but they had to accept it as it was a normal procedure so as to not endanger any of the other residents.

The wolvens had been down there as much as they could with Grif trying to offer both Simmons and his mom the same amount of attention.

Some days afterwards, their mom had been allowed to leave the quarantine. She got Grif's old room as Kimball had been insistent before that Grif kept his own room despite his new living arrangement with Simmons, just in case.

Their mother now living in Grif's room made both Grif and Kai understandably quite happy as they were able to visit their mom and be with her as much as either of them wanted.

Simmons had talked with Grif about everything on the evening that their mother had been released.

The wolven had told Simmons all about his conflicted feelings regarding his mom.

His wolven side was more than happy to have such an important member of the pack back. Her disappearing as she had done had made his wolven side feel rather understandably nervous and abandoned.

He had been forced to take over responsibility for caring for both himself and his sister at an incredibly young age when nobody should be expected to take over such responsibility as a result of that.

His mom was now back though, and his wolven side was extremely happy that she was there and that his pack was together again.

His human side, however…

He had been more than understandably upset and angry with his mother leaving when they had been so young, even though he could understand it from the wolven perspective still.

Grif had been still very young himself when she had left, and Kai had only just turned not even a month before suddenly their mom was gone shortly after their dad had died.

Within the span of only a month, the Grif siblings had lost both their father and their mother.

It had made him really angry, and he still was quite furious with his mom for leaving just like that and not bothering to look after them when they had needed her the most.

Grif, suddenly becoming the chief of both the family and of the pack, had been forced to grow up within a very fucking short amount of time in order to become the provider of the family.

Kai was able to stay a child thanks to him, but he had to become an adult in such a short amount of time to be able to ensure that and to look out for the two of them that his body wasn't able to keep up with how quickly his soul and mind grew.

He even started to copy his mom's signature for report cards or for the paperwork for when Grif eventually dropped out of school. He made excuses for his mom and for why he was there instead at parent-teacher events.

He juggled his life and his work along with Kai's life and her schooling that entire time until Kai got this horrible cough.

He didn't know where to go except to the family doctor who was a wolven too. When he wasn't able to help anymore, the doctor gave Grif the address to the Sanctuary and the young head of the family took his little sister immediately to the address.

Luckily, they were able to help the two young wolven.

Although Grif was truly glad and grateful that they were able to help Kai and that they were allowed to stay in the Sanctuary, none of that helped his anger towards his mother to lessen any over the years.

Instead, he had become even angrier in a lot of ways given what the siblings had been forced to go through and how they had to live given the circumstances.

The only good things that had come out of the experience according to him actually was Grif and Kai moving to the Sanctuary, and both Simmons and Grif getting to know and love one another later on.

…And even that second good thing had only happened after Simmons had almost died and Grif had nearly lost him forever.

"You know, I can feel it when you're thinking too hard." Grif muttered just then, poking Simmons back where his hand rested on the wolven.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it. I'm still too excited." Simmons replied, although a yawn slipped out not a second later.

"Yeah, a lot of stuff has happened but you really should try to sleep. It's been a long night and it's already early in the morning. The sun's actually up." Grif advised, his voice still sounding slightly sleepy as if he was likely to drift off again at any moment.

"Then you should go to sleep again if you're that tired." Simmons told him matter-of-factly, now really beginning to feel drowsy himself once the thought was firmly rooted in his head.

"Can't when you're thinking as hard as you were next to me. It makes me feel all itchy everywhere." the wolven grumbled in playful complaint.

Simmons laughed lowly at that.

"Okay, okay. I'm waving the white flag then. You've won." the redhead replied with a smile, at the same time Simmons felt how the wolven was starting to grin at the direction this jovial banter was going, "I will try to sleep in order to make it possible for both of us to maybe catch up on the rest that we missed last night, all right?"

"Good. And here I was worried that you'd keep us both up by lying here and thinking all night long." Grif jokingly remarked, intensifying his embrace around the redhead.

"Even my brain needs a rest from time to time." Simmons responded, cuddling closer to the wolven. Grif scoffed jokingly at that, "That would be a first for you, nerd."

"Oh just shut up and go to sleep, fat-ass." Simmons poked his side again.

"Love you too, nerd." the wolven responded, making any type of reply that the redhead could have potentially given him die in his throat as the Hawaiian pressed a kiss on Simmons' lips before again pulling him close.

Grif, along with Simmons this time, fell asleep moments later. Both of them were too exhausted to argue and debate matters any longer at that point.


	32. Chapter 32

"Oh my fucking God, E… you look like shit!" the vampire living in the Sanctuary exclaimed when he saw his cousin entering the mess hall of where they were living.

It had taken some weeks for the vampire to get clean again. This kind of abnormal couldn't get addicted or affected by any kind of drugs or alcohol, but they could be affected by some bacteria and viruses residing in a human's body. Addictive viruses and bacteria were rather uncommon, as it was not as though a normal flu would get them addicted.

But one of the diseases they got addicted to was the Ebola Virus, for example. Along with other diseases and viruses such as the Spanish Flu, the Pest, or Cholera.

That helped to explain why vampires were described as being bloodthirsty, terrifying beasts during the dark medieval age. They were junkies who were feeling the effects of deprivation when their addiction trips wore off and they needed something new to regain that sense of high.

It was only logical then that many vampires used to infect normal humans or their livestock, who they liked to prefer calling their living blood banks, with whatever disease it was that they were addicted to at that time.

All of the Church Clan members knew about that inglorious chapter of their lives that was woven together tightly with the dark medieval age and was the main reason why so many vampire hunter clans were subsequently founded.

The most famous of those clans? The Hellsings.

Not willing to stand by and simply watch the continued massacre and harm that vampires held over humankind, the vampire hunters started hunting down any vampires that they could find no matter if they were addicted or actually clean.

A vampire was a vampire to them: a ferocious and bloodthirsty beast, no matter what.

By the end of the Dark Age, most of the Church Clan had been liquidated. Most of them were junkies by that point anyways who did not even care by that point whether or not a Hellsing killed them if they were just able to get their next trip beforehand.

Only the clean and sane vampires in their midst managed to flee from Europe to America. And guess what?

Vampires really do come from Transylvania. Even more than that, Bram Stoker was a vampire too, although he had been turned into one when he was around seven or eight. He had been sickly and weak as a kid, only getting getting better when he had been turned as vampires have an increased immune system.

So the novel Dracula was some kind of worship and tribute towards vampires and their origins. But aside from revealing the actual originating place where vampires came from and the author being one too, the novel was complete bullshit.

Anyways though, back to topic.

The remaining vampires set up strict rules concerning their new home in America. They weren't allowed to infect any more people or getting addicted to any viruses or diseases. If one of the clan noticed another vampire had become addicted to a disease and was spreading it around, he had to inform the council that was comprised of the ten oldest and wisest vampires of the Church Clan about the addiction.

Usually that meant that the offending vampire would get locked away to recover from the addiction to the virus cold turkey and would get released soon afterwards.

The stubborn ones who did not want to get away from the feeling that the addiction fueled in them and who actively fought to stay high were either locked away or killed.

Church would have preferred getting killed himself.

Being locked away for eternity would be a pretty fucking long time for an eternally living species.

His cousin looked up from the tray he had in front of himself which held… blood pudding, what else?

"And here I thought I looked as fresh as morning dew!" the vampire snapped back with Church-typical sarcasm, stuffing a piece of the blood pudding into his mouth.

"Ten day old morning dew. Maybe." the cousin retorted, sitting down with his own portion of blood pudding beside his relative.

"Fuck you." Epsilon grumbled, trying to ignore the asshole sitting next to him currently.

"Seriously though, I thought they would never let you leave quarantine." Church told him, "Even the mother of the fleabags over there was let out earlier than you."

"Fuck you." Epsilon repeated, swallowing another bite of his food, "Quitting cold turkey takes time, although I'm seriously glad I'm over that bullshit now. That was the worst experience of my life."

Church only snorted at the reply, satisfied with the answer he got from his cousin. Members of the Church Clan weren't really the kind of people to show emotions openly except anger and sarcasm, and so they often received and gauged information about the mental and physical state of someone by making snarky remarks and sarcastic comments at them.

Any members of the Church Clan talking amongst themselves often sounded as though they were having a fight to people who were not used to their personalities, although these chats that others might view as fighting were in fact the complete opposite of that and as close to heartfelt as the vampires could possibly ever get to.

A tray being put down forcefully on the table just then made both vampires jump in shock.

Looking up from his tray, Church already dreaded what would follow.

"Hello, Church-Epsilon!" the loud, hollering voice made both of the cousins cringe, although for totally different reasons.

"I'm Michael J. Caboose and I'm Church's bestest friend!" the Fire Elemental exclaimed happily.

Church couldn't help but face palm at that.

"Uh, nice to meet you." Epsilon muttered, not really knowing what he should think about the sudden appearance of this exuberant newcomer.

"Dude, you better not be nice to him or he will cling to you like fucking chewing gum to the sole of a fucking shoe." Church advised his cousin in a loud whisper.

"Oh, I like chewing gum! It is sweet and fruity!" Caboose added to the discussion that Church had just started with Epsilon, although he obviously did not really catch on to what the actual subject of it had been.

"Uh-huh, I'm sure." Epsilon muttered back as an answer to both remarks.

"Do you like chewing gum too, Church-Epsilon?" Caboose seemed to have taken that response from the vampire as an okay to continue the discussion.

"Not really. I prefer the salty kind more." Epsilon replied, mind reeling for ways to get out of the conversation as fast as possible as he noticed that his asshole cousin was already making a quick exit in order to get away from Caboose.

Asshole!

Suddenly getting an idea, he turned to Caboose, "Hey, Caboose. My cousin's your best friend, right?"

"Yes, we are bestest friends!" Caboose agreed, nodding excitedly with his head, "But you can be my

second bestest friend."

Epsilon cringed inwardly at that, "Uh, I think I'll have to pass." he muttered before raising his voice, "Anyways. Your best friend just took off without you."

Epsilon nodded towards the doorway that Church had escaped out of the mess hall through and waited for Caboose to register what he had just said before asking, "Shouldn't you be going after him? Just in case something happens?"

Caboose nodded emphatically in agreement with Epsilon's suggestion, "Oh, yes… last time when he was alone he got shot in his foot and I had to give him a piggyback ride to the witch-lady!"

Jumping up from his seat, Caboose quickly followed after the retreating Church… his lunch already long forgotten.

Epsilon, however, couldn't stop laughing from imagining his oh-so-cool and independent cousin getting a piggyback ride from that big-as-all-fuck guy.

"So you're a Church. Let me guess: you can't stop bitching about shit?" a new voice beside the vampire asked.

The dark-skinned newcomer was looking over at Epsilon with an annoyed expression on his face, not giving away that he almost had smashed the dish his food was resting on.

"Tucker, what have I said about manners!?" a blond guy hissed beside him, both his ears and tail revealing that he was a werecat. It looked as though he was just of the age where he could turn completely human, but he still seemed to prefer staying in his in-between form for whatever reason.

"What did I do wrong exactly?" the dark skinned man, named Tucker, replied in a nonplussed fashion, "It's not like it isn't true, so it isn't really rude or anything for me to have said it."

"Even if it is true you don't need to throw that out when you first meet someone!" the pitch of the werecat's voice rose slightly with that outburst.

"So?" the other guy, who Epsilon now remembered Church having said before was an Incubus, replied nonchalantly still, "It's better to do that than a pick-up line."

Tucker waggled his eyebrows for added emphasis just then and the werecat slapped the flat of his hand against his forehead while grumbling something that not even Epsilon's sharp hearing was able to catch.

When the Incubus turned back around, Epsilon cocked an eyebrow but didn't react otherwise as he saw Tucker take a seat on the opposite side of the table from him.

"So are you this Epsilon guy I've been hearing about then or what?" the Incubus asked, not really caring at all that the werecat shoved him in the ribs following the question.

"And if I am?" Epsilon replied dryly, warily eyeing the dark skinned man sitting at the same table as him.

He had always been a rather cautious person, even more so since those assholes from before had caught and drugged him. He had never been someone who easily trusted, and to say that had become even less since the hijacking was something of an understatement.

"Whoa, chill out! I'm not going to bite or anything. You're the vampire here. I'm just responsible for the seduction department." Tucker lifted his hands in a placating fashion with a grin, showing his pearly white teeth and waggling suggestively with his eyebrows once more.

"For real?" Epsilon state, not really persuaded of the man's good intentions just yet. He already was beginning to understand why his cousin always described the guy as an asshole when he was talking about the other residents of the Sanctuary.

"I'm sure you haven't gotten laid at all over the last two hundred years since you're behaving like you have the largest stick up your ass that would be humanly possible. You're worse than your cousin, actually." There, that settled it. Tucker really was an asshole.

"So? I'd rather prefer that over bad pick-up lines." the vampire replied calmly, taking a swig out of his glass of cow blood. It tasted awful, but having a human sheep wasn't allowed here.

"Hey, my pick-up lines are pretty good! I haven't even tried one on you yet!" Tucker's tone definitely sounded offended at the accusation.

The werecat behind him grumbled something just then which sounded suspiciously like "You better not try anything."

It was easy enough to piece everything together the dynamic between the two of them by that point, actually. It was pretty obvious to Epsilon that the werecat and the Incubus were together, and that the werecat was therefore being pretty jealous and defensive regarding his mate given that.

"Save it, asshole." Epsilon remarked, standing up and picking up his empty tray, "A has already told me that your pick-up lines are horrible. I think I'd rather enjoy the company of my cousin than have to put up with that type of shit."

"A?" the Incubus questioned, obviously not hearing the last part of Epsilon's explanation or simply choosing to not hear it.

Epsilon didn't give a fuck either way and turned around to walk away from the pair sitting before him still.

Behind him, he heard the Incubus calling for him, "Hey, who's A?"

Epsilon didn't bother replying. It looked like Alpha hadn't told any of the other residents here about his real prename.

The other Church wouldn't bother to explain everything himself then, rather enjoying the idea that he could cause some confusion around here by talking about the mysterious 'A' who was obviously unknown to the rest of the Sanctuary.

He brought the tray over to the collection point to dump it there and left the mess hall, heading towards his room.

It was the middle of the day and his internal clock was telling him rather incessantly that he needed to go the fuck to sleep just then.

It's true what they say, all right? Vampires really did prefer to sleep through the day when possible.

Epsilon's instinctual drive to do so was even stronger at this point as he still had a rather fucked up sleeping schedule from his earlier captivity.

Maybe he should go to the library and see if there were some interesting books there to read in his room. He had heard from A that Kimball had a huge collection of old and rare books at the Sanctuary, including books that were not really designed to be read by 'normal' humans but by Abnormals instead.

Following this idea, he walked over to the library but soon noticed something. A familiar and well-known scent that he picked up on rather quickly. Wolvens.

Oh great…

The vampire groaned when he heard the trampling of eight paws on the floor.

This was fucking great.

He wasn't up for a pursuit across the entire length of the Sanctuary right about now.

So he decided to approach the situation with his second way of handling overjoyed and chase-happy wolvens: by standing still and not showing any signs of uneasiness at their presence.

Indeed, the wolvens came to a screeching halt merely a meter in front of the vampire at that and looked up at him with surprised expressions on their faces.

Obviously they either had thought that he was A or that he would have simply run away like he did in response to them, but Epsilon wasn't in the mood for playing games like that at the moment.

He glared at the wolvens which caused them to back down slightly, obviously noticing by now that Epsilon wasn't going to join in on their little game.

The vampire turned around fully to face the wolvens more directly, causing the flea-bags to back down a little bit more. They were now really looking afraid of Epsilon's unusual reaction to their more playful attack, apparently completely unfamiliar to his way of dealing with this type of bullshit.

This game here was actually something that the vampire enjoyed immensely. But he was able to not reveal how much fun he was having as he followed every time the wolvens made a step back with a step forward towards them, his expression remaining schooled into an impassive and intimidating one.

The wolvens' tails were between their rear legs, ears flat against their skull and their heads hanging low.

They were intimidated by Epsilon's actions, almost frightened by them.

Soon enough, he had the wolvens up a wall with both flea-bags not really knowing where to go so they chose to stay put instead.

A sadistic grin appeared on Epsilon's lips, showing his pointed teeth as he leaned down to the wolvens.

When his face was just merely a few inches away, his grin widened a notch.

The wolvens were probably now almost pissing their fur with how afraid they looked.

It was fucking hilarious!

Inching a bit closer, the vampire inhaled deeply before saying in a low voice: "Boo!"

As though that were the starting shot to a race, both of the wolvens started running at once. They tried to get away so quickly that they were sliding haphazardly on the polished floor before taking off with their tails still between their legs, whimpering lowly.

Epsilon laughed to himself when he entered the library to get book to read through the afternoon, feeling rather pleased with his antics.

Wolvens were so easy to scare when you were a vampire.


	33. Chapter 33

Simmons really couldn't tell how they had gotten into this situation: this was definitely a case where not even he could get his normally oh-so-excellent working brain to give himself any type of logical answer about the current predicament they were it.

One moment, they were assaulting a storage area at one of the biggest trucking companies around Atlanta.

After Grif's mother and Epsilon Church had gotten better and were both fully recovered and integrated into life at the Sanctuary, Simmons soon received some hints from his contacts at ARA that there was a storage area being used as a transit camp of sorts for Abnormals who were sold or were going to be sold on the black market slave trade soon.

Kimball had ordered an assault on the area soon after receiving Simmons' detailed intel.

Carolina, York, Wash, and North had soon gotten ready for the upcoming event that Simmons, Grif, Kai and their mother would also be participating in. It would be a quick assault with many of the other residents getting prepared to join them later on too. They would be driving different buses and cars in order to transport the Abnormals to the Sanctuary to treat their wounds.

The wolvens would be taking over carrying the wounded and weaker Abnormals to get them to the vehicles as quickly and efficiently as possible.

And then in the next moment they had been inside the storage area: only to be looking directly down the barrel of a gun.

No, scratch that… guns!

Dozens of soldiers all carrying guns were there, every single weapon in the room pointed at the assault team.

It had been a fucking trap! Just fucking peachy!

"Well, well, well… who do we have here? Why, isn't it Kimball and her troupe of clowns?" a voice mocked in fake surprise from behind the guns.

Felix was standing there, lazily throwing and catching a knife between his fingers and grinning sadistically. From next to him came another snarky remark, only barely audible and not really all that understandable to anyone who wasn't directly nearby where it was being spoken from.

Locus too, then.

Said soldier soon left after Felix flipped him off, leaving the other to say everything as this whole idea had apparently been completely Felix's own without Locus having any opinion on the matter. This apparently had become enough of a sore point for Locus in some ways that it meant that the leaving soldier didn't even feel the need to participate in whatever sick game the orange and steel armored soldier had set up.

Felix himself only grinned broader as Locus left.

"Well, how about you be polite and say hello to everyone? After all, these guys here have shown up just to see you!" Felix pointed towards Kimball with the tip of his knife, "Don't you want to welcome them?" he mocked further, coming a bit closer but keeping some distance from the wolvens who were growling dangerously at him.

The three of them had built a line of defense in front of Kimball, meaning that nobody would ever be able to lay a hand on their Alpha so long as they were able to prevent it.

To his credit, Felix was smart enough to know that and to also know then that it was best to not be in close proximity to the three pissed off wolven if he wanted to keep all of his limbs and throat safe.

"We'd prefer passing on that opportunity, I'm afraid." Kimball replied calmly, as she obviously had already expected a trap or thought about a possible outcome like this beforehand. All of the members of the Sanctuary wore filters in their noses in order filter the air around them so as to not get poisoned. They weren't those big gas masks, but smaller filters that were reminiscent of cones in their nostrils filtering the air without almost suffocating them and without being visible.

Even the wolvens were wearing the filters, although Simmons had a very hard time putting them in correctly and making them stay following.

The first instinct of the wolvens was to sneeze to get the foreign and odd feeling thing out of their nose.

It was a hard piece of work to get them to refrain from doing that, but finally he had managed it.

The redhead was rather glad that he had managed to put the filters into the wolvens' noses and had succeeded in making them stay there as, slowly but surely, the soldiers around him began to fall down to the ground in unconscious heaps.

The gas making the soldiers drop one by one was only secreted by the Presbyterian Hollow Mouth when they felt they were in danger.

For the toad-like creature, being locked in a box almost too small for the animal and that was also too dark, hot, stuffy, and dry all at once was a dangerous situation indeed and made him react on instinct.

In this particular case, that meant that he had opened his mouth and let loose a huge amount of the gas as a self-defense mechanism.

Simmons and Jensen had then filled this gas into small containers, about as big as an average teargas grenade before promptly taking the Hollow Mouth out of the box to let him relax and feel safe once more.

Three Sanctuary inhabitants had thrown the grenades into the area from the outside of the building on Kimball's low mumbled order while Felix was talking, hauling ass soon after to get away and into one of the waiting cars to get them back to the Sanctuary.

The gas was pretty fucking effective, even in smaller doses. Smaller beings like small animals and insects would die with the high concentration they were using.

Humans would fall asleep for a long time, almost like Sleeping Beauty.

This toad-like creature, in fact, had actually been the reason a girl fell asleep for a very long time with the Brothers Grim finding her when she already was asleep and later on telling a version of the story that the inhabitants of the close-by village told them about her name in their collection of fairy tales.

In the present, there was only one person left standing on the other side when all was said and done. Felix.

Of course that fucker would still be standing, having an included gas mask for such occasions in his helmet and the armor that he wore!

He looked like a strange mix of high-end technology soldier and android.

Lopez would have been very happy to have that kind of mix to examine. The Spanish madman was really taking after Sarge recently. Although they didn't understand each other, they shared the same fondness for strange techniques and technologies.

Outside, Simmons believed he could hear cars burning rubber. It looked like Kimball had given the order for many of the guys to retreat, with only Sarge and Bitters waiting each in a car to pick up the people still inside the storage hall.

"Not bad, not bad… but I actually already suspected something like that from you, Kimball. You're not someone to be underestimated." The grin and the self-satisfaction radiating from him was palpable, even through his helmet.

Simmons scowled.

Grif and Kai began to move nervously beside him just then.

Simmons laid a hand on each of the wolvens' backs to calm them down. They stepped back when Kimball had given them a quick order to do so with her hand, Grif and Kai having taking up their previous spots beside Simmons while Grif's mom stayed beside Kimball.

He could feel their raised hackles under his hand, the nervous trembling of their muscles under their skin.

Simmons knew that all of their muscles were tensed up to the point where Simmons had the distinct notion that their muscles would tear apart the next moment they would move.

"Oh, who do we have here? The bedside rug family and their keeper— the burnt man." Simmons suppressed the urge to shudder when he felt the cold gaze of his enemy on him and the mental picture Felix's statement provoked. He still wasn't on good terms with fire, and Simmons was pretty sure that he would stay like that for some time longer.

Grif growled beside him dangerously, making it clear that he wouldn't let Felix anywhere near the redhead. The growling reverberated through Simmons' arm, all the way up to his lungs.

The redhead quickly but forcefully tugged at his hackles in order to make him calm down. Freaking out wouldn't help them here: it would only make things worse should one of them provoke the sadistic asshole.

At least his trigger happy soldiers were out cold.

"At least we're not psychotic mass murderers like you." Carolina growled from behind the group. Everyone else, except Carolina, Wash, Kimball, the Grifs, and Simmons had already retreated by now, with Bitters driving them back to the Sanctuary while Sarge was still waiting to pick up the last men standing.

It was their best strategy, now that only Felix was left: Kimball wanted as many people as possible out of the danger zone.

As the Grifs and Simmons were in the direct focus of Felix, they couldn't make a safe retreat which in the end meant that they would have to stay there along with Kimball and the Freelancers until the bitter end.

"So, bitch, are you that never-dying abomination of nature I've kept hearing about living at the Sanctuary?" Felix asked Carolina, his tone almost conversational.

"Yeah," Her voice showed something like grim pride at what Felix had said, "and I won't stop chasing your sorry ass until I get you killed or you die because you're an old man— not even able to go to the bathroom on your own while I stay this young forever." Carolina replied casually, her tone as conversational as Felix's although the provocation and threat was pretty clearly audible in what she said.

While Felix was still trying to figure Carolina out and get inside her head, Carolina knew exactly how to push the enemies' buttons.

Simmons actually could understand just then what Carolina had meant when she had said before that Felix was pretty easy to read and that one could find out which buttons you could push to make him angry.

He seemed to be playing the mysterious one, the multi-faceted monster he loved to play.

But thinking about it now, Simmons had to say that Felix was neither one nor the other. He was not mysterious nor multi-faceted.

He simply was a sadistic and mean asshole, only wanting to kill and destroy as many people and lives as possible.

His only goal was to destroy others. Maybe it stemmed from a weird sense of feeling better than those he destroyed or killed? Maybe it all boiled down to his desperate wish to make others feel more miserable than he did?

He was a manipulative bastard… that much was for sure. What he had pulled during their assault on the Sanctuary had been the best indicator of that. He was able to manipulate people in order to make them do what he wanted for his plans.

But he had a pretty short fuse when it came to being patient. That was more of Locus' department from what Simmons had seen of the other man.

Felix only wanted to control and manipulate people, and to destroy what he couldn't control in as short of an amount of time as was possible.

Locus, on the other hand, who had left already to report to Hargrove, was the more complicated character of the two. He was smart and a brilliant tactician. He tended to keep his calm even if the situation became heated, and kept a clear overview of what was happening.

No matter how the situation ended up developing, he always seemed pretty well-prepared for it and always had an ace up his sleeve.

That bastard would be much more complicated to get through.

Felix wasn't easy either, but he was definitely a lot more predictable than Locus.

Speaking of Felix, the asshole looked around almost casually before remarking on something, "Oh, by the way, where's my favorite Incubus? Didn't he have time to come and see me too?"

"He won't see you again. Ever." This time it was Wash who answered the question from behind the leader of the Sanctuary. He decided to stay in his full human form, schooling his expression into a passive one, although his voice gave away how pissed he was at the mention of Tucker.

"He doesn't want to see me?" Felix replied again in his mocking tone of disbelief, "I'm hurt!"

A light scowl appeared on Wash's face, but he didn't say a word to that.

Felix, on the other hand, didn't seem to be impressed by the missing answer.

"Oh, I see. It wasn't him who didn't want to see me… it was you probably ordering him to babysit his bastard son out of fear that he would leave you again for my good looks, wasn't it?" he whistled in fake sympathy, "Ouch, it must be pretty harsh for you to have an Incubus as a boyfriend what with being a werecat and all."

The obvious provocation didn't pass by Wash without effect, but he didn't bother replying to what the mercenary said.

He just simply stood there, keeping his expression schooled and his mouth shut.

All of the others also decided that it was better not to answer the guy, as you would only lose any conversational debate with him because he would find your weak spot within an instant.

Just when it looked as if Felix was looking around to provoke someone else, he suddenly tilted his head slightly to his side before answering some unknown voice on a concealed radio in a low tone.

He was too far away for Simmons to catch what he said, but it became pretty obvious what the person on the other end of the line had probably said when Felix straightened himself.

He put his knife away, only to replace it with a pistol.

"Well, as much as I just love chatting with you guys, I have to excuse myself. Our boss is waiting for the news that you've been killed." Felix explained, walking over to one of the walls and punching a code in a panel attached to it.

Simmons knew immediately from the look of the panel that he was getting a bomb activated. It was probably set on a timer and would explode after a defined time, judging by appearances.

"I will give you thirty seconds. But as all of the exits are closed, I highly doubt you'll get out within that time."

Felix' voice was still fucking calm, while panic began to rise in Simmons' chest.

He hated it. The thought of an explosion, together with the subsequent fire that would stem from it too, made his heartbeat rise.

Grif pressed closer, clearly showing that he was there for support and to try to calm Simmons down.

That helped, even if only for a bit.

At least it prevented him from having a full blown panic attack then and there.

The redhead gulped, hearing the beeping of the seconds passing by.

Felix was long gone by now, leaving the inhabitants of the Sanctuary alone in this fucking death trap.

"Retreat!"

That was the only order Kimball gave, making everyone start to quickly head towards the exit.

Simmons knew that Sarge could melt the door if he wanted to. He only hoped that he wasn't out cold and had been able to hide himself.

Wash was the first at the door, immediately stopping the others from following him any closer.

"Keep away!" he hissed back at them in warning.

By now, everyone could feel the heat radiating off the door.

Sarge had obviously seemed to have noticed that something was off and was trying to melt his way into the building to help.

The door was soon open and the team ran outside.

Ten seconds.

Knowing Felix's foible for huge fireworks, it was pretty certain that the blast would have a huge radius, which meant it was even more important to get into the car and away rather now than later.

Running towards the car, Simmons was one of the last ones to it when he heard the first detonations go off.

Windows were splintering and steel walls were beginning to creak and moan under the sudden shift of weight. Soon enough, they broke when they weren't able to carry the weight of the roof or contain the pressure from the explosion's force anymore.

Something flew by Simmons, only inches away, making him tuck his head between his shoulders and run faster.

His mind was working in overdrive.

They had placed bombs outside with cluster munition! Fucking fuck!

Running faster, something detonated right beside him— only a few feet away.

Right after, he heard how something hit a body close by and the dull crunching sound made him feel sick to his stomach.

The pained yowl following it made him stop dead in his tracks.

Dread pooled in his stomach when he kneeled down beside the injured inhabitant and looked at the wound. There was only one thing capable of taking a wolven down with such deadly precision.

And Simmons dreaded finding exactly that in the wolven's body as he examined it.

Reaching into the wound, the redhead soon felt something sharp, but it was so deep in the body that he couldn't pull it out.

The object was stuck there and it made Simmons want to cry.

No, this couldn't be happening!

Pulling his hand out of the wound, he could see that the blood seeping from it was starting to turn black.

His most horrible fears had all turned out to be true.

The blood oozing through his fingers was also black, the wolven shuddering and breathing heavily on the ground next to him. Pained whines escaping from the wolven every now and again as it struggled.

Simmons knew that this injury was lethal, but he couldn't accept it.

There had to be a possibility to cure something like this!

There just _had_ to be!


	34. Chapter 34

As soon as they reached the Sanctuary, Simmons excused himself and ran into his room.

He felt horrible being in those bloody clothes, he just quickly wanted to change them and wash his hands despite the little amount of time there was left.

Quickly without really looking at it, he threw on one of his maroon shirts and some jeans.

Snatching up his laptop, he darted out of his room— almost fleeing from the pained sounds coming from Grif's room where Kimball and Carolina had brought the pack in.

Of course Grey would be trying her hardest to help the poor thing very soon.

The wolvens would be with the injured member of their pack in order to try and make sure that it would get well soon, although they would have to hold themselves back from getting too close as long as Grey was around.

If one of them got too close and interfered with her attempts at healing, Dr. Grey would dissect them without batting an eye.

Simmons went directly into the library, taking out any of the books about wolvens that were there and began to read them at a frantic, desperate pace.

He had mastered a technique to zoom through books, only reading some of the passages to quickly scan them for any trace of what he was looking for.

He looked through every book, but couldn't find a damn thing.

Next, he quickly checked the notes that he took from what Kai, Grif, and their mother had told him about the wolvens, using the search function on his laptop to look through them even faster.

But he still couldn't find a fucking thing!

There wasn't even the smallest snippet of information concerning this subject except what he already knew!

With a frustrated cry, he opened the web browser and entered the deepest parts of the internet to start searching the websites he knew to be reliable when it came to rarer information on Abnormals.

After several more hectic minutes of futile searching, he closed his laptop with an audible 'clap.'

He combed his fingers through his red hair, letting loose a shaky breath. Nothing.

Absolutely fucking _nothing_!

He couldn't find one single piece of information about how to help a wolven with such an injury except for two things.

Either you kill them right away to save them from horrible pain, or, the other possibility was only that you make the rest of the time they have on this world as free of pain as possible.

Which was what Grey was most likely doing, he realized.

Simmons suddenly knew why it was that when Carolina had directly started running towards the infirmary before, both Grey and Kimball had ordered the wolven to be brought to the room that Dex had insisted to use while at the Sanctuary.

That would be a safe and very comfortable environment for their last moments, and no doubt almost pain free thanks to painkillers.

He again cried out at that, the stress he was feeling starting to turn into an overwhelming panic attack. If only he could do something!

The wolven had saved him from getting killed (for real this time) and would die now only because Simmons hadn't been able to jump out of the line of fire fast enough!

That wasn't fair! Not after what she had to go through before! Not after being reunited with her pups again after such a long time!

Without Simmons having noticed it, the door to the library opened and someone entered.

He literally only noticed that when the newcomer sat down beside the redhead, resting a soothing hand on his shoulder.

Simmons jerked when he was touched, looking up at Carolina's face. Worry lines weaved throughout her expression, making it clear that she was as distressed as he was over the situation.

"What are you doing here?" Although still demanding, her voice was as soft as it could be for being Carolina's voice.

"I— I—" Simmons gulped, forcing himself to speak around the lump in his throat, "I tried to find a cure to help her. But…" He muttered, helplessly clenching his hands into fists.

This was _so unfair_!

Carolina sighed, shaking her head, "There's nothing you could do. Silver is as lethal to wolvens as gold is to werecats."

"But—" Simmons tried to protest, but Carolina shook her head again with a sad expression on her features and cut him off.

"She _is_ going to _die_ , Simmons." She told him as gently as possible, "The only thing you can do for her as part of the pack is to stay with her until her time comes, and then stay with the other two through their mourning period."

Simmons looked down at his clenched hands, trying desperately to blink away the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.

He knew that Carolina was right, but he felt so powerless that he couldn't do anything more to help those who were so important to him.

He couldn't help his mom before when her dad hit her again and again and he couldn't help Grif's mother either.

He couldn't help _anyone_ , and he felt so useless and powerless.

"I can understand how you feel." the phoenix seemed to pick up on what Simmons was thinking just then, "But the only thing you can do is go and pay your last respects to her. That's the best help you can offer her right now."

When he said nothing, she continued, "And I'm sure they will appreciate you doing that. Stop thinking about how you couldn't do something. Sometimes you can't do anything against what is happening around you, you just have to accept it. Now go." Carolina ordered, a small smile appearing on her lips and her features softening.

Simmons swallowed again around the lump in his throat before getting up.

He muttered a low "Thank you" to Carolina, who replied with a single nod. He left the library without another word.

Slowly, he made his way over to the room he knew the wolvens to be in. He knocked and walked inside with slumped shoulders and a hanging head. Did he feel horrible before, he felt god awfully bad now, when he saw the wolven laying there.

Grey didn't comment on him entering due to hovering over her patient just then, although she noticed him. Kimball quickly looked up and waved him over.

Quietly, she instructed him on what to do about the painkillers and how to change the I.V. bag with the painkillers when it became empty.

The stash was in a box that only Grey, Kimball, and now Simmons knew the code to open.

Soon afterwards the two women left the room, leaving Simmons and the wolvens alone.

It looked like Grey had stopped the most of the bleeding, although the bandage had already begun to turn black once more around where the wound was.

Slowly, Simmons stood up and got the blanket from the bed, putting it over the wolven's lower half for warmth and also to cover the bandage.

She would feel cold soon enough. And her pups didn't need to see the extent of the injury like he and Grey had.

Sure, Simmons knew that those two weren't kids anymore and that they could handle seeing an injured person but having to watch your own mother die is hard enough.

They didn't need to see the extent of the injuries and the black blood seeping through the bandages  
Dex and Kai had come to lie beside her to share their warmth, always being cautious about the wound.

Soon, the two were lying closely beside her while Simmons had her head in his lap and scratched the spot behind her ears that he knew Dex was always so fond of.

Grif's mom sighed lowly and closed her eyes at Simmons' action. Despite the sad situation, he couldn't help but smile ruefully.

That was _definitely_ something Grif seemed to have inherited from her.

He could feel her breath against the skin of his right lower arm. It came unregularly and shaky, the poison already ravaging strongly through her system and making the blood turn black.

The silver flowing through her veins was akin to pure acid being in her bloodstream. It was destroying her erythrocytes and veins, attacking her lung and her other organs.

Either she would suffocate, or she would die of blood loss or because her internal organs had started to shut down one after another.

He kept scratching the wolven.

"I'm sorry I can't help you." Simmons muttered, feeling tears burning in his eyes, "I looked up everything and tried searching everywhere but I couldn't find any ways to help you."

His shoulders began to shake, tears starting to fall down onto his hands and the wolven's snout.

Weakly, she lifted her head and licked over his sound right arm several times as if in a soothing gesture before lying her head back down and sighing deeply.

"I'm so sorry." Simmons muttered again, sobbing lowly while the wolven rested her head on his lap.

He pressed his eyes shut, trying to bite back the sobs threatening to escape his throat. Now wasn't the time to have a breakdown.

The Grif siblings needed his help and support.

Grif and Kai needed him to be strong and to be a brace for them.

For hours, they were sitting just like that.

Simmons couldn't feel his legs anymore, but he didn't care.

She would pass away soon enough and Simmons didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable just by being a prick.

He had changed her bag with painkillers when the other one became empty, checking with the wolven to see if she still felt any pain.

It was sometime into the next day when he heard the dying wolven cough.

When he looked down, he could see black stains on his jeans.

Her breathing was heavy and her body seemed to tremble with exhaustion with every struggling breath she took.

So it would be suffocating then, Simmons thought ruefully as he looked down at the wolven.

Her eyes were closed and her breathing was heavy. She was so weak that she almost couldn't even breathe anymore. Even less so considering the fact that her lungs had started to fill with acidic blood.

Within six minutes tops, she would be dead.

For those last few and incredibly sad minutes, Simmons increased the amount of painkillers far above what was considered a healthy dosage.

The painkillers would be so strong that she wouldn't feel pain anymore. The amount of painkillers was so strong that it would be lethal: it would help the wolvens' mother to die earlier, to fall asleep peacefully and not notice the last moments of pain when the body was struggling futilely for air with every fiber of the body hurting and screaming in agony.

She had gone through enough pain during her life and in these few hours. She didn't need to suffer even more in her last moments.

When she seemed to notice what Simmons was doing, she lifted her head and looked at him with something that Simmons interpreted as gratitude.

Lifting her head, she mumbled something and looked Simmons in the eyes. The redhead knew that this mumbling must mean something, but he couldn't understand what she meant.

The mumbling sound made her children lift their heads, looking at her curiously.

First, she turned to Kai, both of them obviously having a short chat before the young wolven buried her face in the older wolven's fur.

Simmons used the moment to get up, skidding over to Grif who had gotten up to sit beside his mother and was now obviously talking to her as well.

Something seemed to be going on between them, though Simmons still couldn't understand what she or the other two were saying to one another.

This was something that obviously only wolven could understand. Some sort of pack-thing.

At the end of their discussion, the wolven rested her head back down on the pillow that Simmons had replaced his lap with.

He could see that her breathing was getting shallower and that the pauses between the breaths were longer with each passing minute. Checking her pulse with the stethoscope, he heard her pulse slowing down as well.

A minute later, and he couldn't hear any pulse anymore.

 _She was gone._

She went quietly in her sleep thanks to Simmons increasing the painkillers.

He took off the stethoscope, putting it away with a sad expression.

"She fell asleep." Simmons muttered, looking down at the peaceful-looking face of the wolven.

He closed the I.V. drip and took the needle out of her front paw.

"I'm sorry." the redhead whispered to nobody in general, wiping away the blood from her snout with a towel.

Kai whined loudly, her face still buried deeply in her mom's fur.

Grif, as the leader of the pack, sat up before lying his head back in his neck and howling loudly with sadness. The howl sounded so heart-wrenching and mournful, Simmons felt like howling himself when he heard it.

Slipping over to his boyfriend, the redhead slung his arms around the wolven and buried his face in the thick black fur there.

Grif was still howling, although the sound began to change. It changed from a wolven howling to a human howling.

Underneath his hands, the redhead could feel Grif's body starting to shift, the fur disappearing and his body taking up a more human form until he had turned completely human.

Simmons felt how Grif slung his arms around his small frame, fisting his shirt and burying his face in Simmons' neck. He began sobbing helplessly. His whole body trembled from the sobs racking his body.

Every now and then he shuddered but most of all his body was shaken by sobs, and it almost sounded as though Grif was actually yelling instead of sobbing in his demonstration of immense grief.

Simmons had the feeling that, for the very first time in quite a long while, Grif was letting everything out that had built up inside of him over the course of growing up.

For Kai's sake he had always forced himself to be the strong one, the tough one of the family. The Alpha.

It seemed as though he had never been able to lean on someone else or have someone be there for him when he had needed someone: he had always been the loving and caring brother (even though he couldn't show it all the time), the strong Alpha for his sister… Kai's big brother.

But Grif had never really had someone be there for him whenever he had felt like snapping before.

Simmons was slowly beginning to understand why Grif had developed into that cynical and sarcastic asshole he was now.

When nobody had been there for him, he had to help himself and had started to lash out on others in order to hide his weak side.

Attack was the best defense and all that, huh?

Sure, Simmons knew that Grif was fucking buck-naked right now but he didn't care.

Grif needed him right now. He had just lost his mother and Simmons wouldn't dick around or act awkward at the moment simply because he hadn't had the time to dress decently.

That really was the least important thing on Simmons' and, even more-so, on Grif's list of things to worry about currently.

Comfortingly weaving his hand through Grif's hair, he muttered soothing words into the wolven's ear while Grif's body still was wreaked by heart-wrenching sobs.

The sobs still sounded so pained, so full of sadness, so full of… hurt.

Hurt because of what had happened only a few minutes ago, hurt because of what had happened already years ago.

Simmons began to gently rock back and forth with the crying wolven in his arms, still muttering soothing words into his ear and pressing a kiss to his temple from time to time. He would let Grif wail while he was simply here for the wolven.

Grif needed him right now; he couldn't let him down and have a breakdown of his own given everything.

He had to be strong when his boyfriend couldn't be.

He would be the brace that Grif needed so, _so_ desperately at this very moment.


	35. Chapter 35

Simmons awoke from a light slumber the next day.

He could see Kai still lying beside her dead mother while Grif was lying on the ground in his human form.

The young alpha male was sleeping soundly, Simmons having covered him with a blanket before.

Sometime after Grif's desperate howling had begun, Kimball had shown up and checked on the wolvens and Simmons.

The pack hadn't been ready to let go of the body just yet, so Kimball decided that she would return to get the body when Dex and Kai were ready to let Moana, their mother, go.

The only thing she could do for them was to bring them some more blankets and water.

After giving some water to Kai and Grif, Simmons also drank something before making the two wolvens go to sleep while he would take over the first night of watching over the wolven who had just passed away.

Sometime later when Kai was awake, the redhead had dropped off a little bit himself. He was dozing, but not really sleeping soundly. He could hear even the slightest sounds in the room still.

Grif was out cold, his howling and falling tears had made him extremely tired.

He was covered with the blanket, and would only be taking over the watch later on when he was feeling okay again. As long as he wasn't, Simmons and Kai would take over for him.

During the morning, Kai had decided to turn as well, walking over to her room and Simmons' to get some clothes for both herself and Grif.

Putting down the clothes beside Simmons' thigh, both of them decided to let their Alpha sleep more.

While Simmons was watching Grif, carding his fingers through his thick, dark hair as Kai did the same with the dead body of their mother, an almost fond expression crossed over her features despite the sadness still present in her eyes and her face.

"You know," Kai began, "She thanked you for being with her."

Simmons looked up, seeing that Kai hadn't looked up from her mom's features as the soft expression turned even sadder just then. Tears started to fall from the younger woman's face.

"You mean… when she mumbled?" he asked, "Shortly before she fell asleep?"

Kai nodded, "I saw you increasing the dosage of the painkillers. You practically gave her an overdose to lessen her pain and make her fall asleep before she would get into the horrible part of suffocation." She was staring down at her mother's still form, "That's what she thanked you for, and that you were here despite the fact that you are a human. For her, and us too, you're pack. No matter if you're wolven or not."

Simmons again looked down at the sleeping figure of Grif, the Alpha obviously still out cold and not hearing any of what they were talking about.

"I thought that she was saying something to me, although I couldn't understand it." Simmons muttered, now looking over to the unmoving figure of the dead wolven, "May I ask… if she said anything else?" the redhead questioned tentatively, looking over to Kai before adding hastily, "O—Only if you want to tell me. If it hurts too much to say, you can just let it be."

Grif's sister shook her head before answering, "It's okay." she stroked the head of her dead mother with a sad smile, "She also asked you to take good care of her son and your boyfriend. You're mates, at least. Just keep an eye on him. And… on me too." Kai added, some more tears falling.

It took him some moments to realize what Kai had just said and what this meant. He smiled softly, looking over to Kai. "I will, sister." the redhead replied calmly, making the female wolven look up.

Simmons could see that she was close to a breakdown. Her eyes were red and swollen.

Simmons extended his arms and only said with a quiet voice, "Come here."

Kai didn't say much more, but shuffled over and wrapped her arms around Simmons' neck and started to sob heavily. Soon enough Simmons' shoulder felt wet again, but he didn't care.

His friends needed him and if it took him some time and a wet shirt, he would gladly give both to make them feel better.

When Kai finally fell asleep leaning against him, Simmons decided to take over the shift for her and Grif.

Hours later, Grif slowly woke up. He dressed, drank a lot of water, and ate something. He didn't eat much though, but it was something at least.

During the next few hours, Simmons sat leaned against the wall with the Grif siblings leaning on either side of him.

Grif was awake while Kai was sleeping soundly this time.

Simmons could feel Grif holding his hand in a tight, slightly painful grip but he didn't complain.

For once, the human Grif was needing his proximity as a reassurance, unlike how it was usually always Simmons needing Grif's.

So when the wolven needed his partner, Simmons couldn't deny him that. Grif needed him and he would be there for his mate.

At some point into their relationship Simmons had also begun to refer to Grif as his mate and vice versa.

He supposed it boiled down to that when you were around wolvens all the time, you just simply started to think like a wolven.

Letting his thumb ghost over the back of Grif's hand, he could feel the wolven shudder and press closer.

Moments later, when the Alpha was close enough; Simmons lifted his hand and laid his arm around his shoulders before again entwining their fingers. With a shaky breath, Grif leaned against him even more.

The fourth day after Moana's death, after every one of them watched over the body at least one day, the wolvens finally decided to let her go.

Simmons informed Kimball, who organized a funeral for the wolven on the land where the Sanctuary stood.

It had been her last home together with her children. And both of them would be able to visit her whenever they wanted to this way.

It was a beautiful funeral with a stony sarcophagus that had a huge bouquet of flowers on it. The bouquet was mostly dominated by moon flowers and eclipse roses, both flowers that wolvens loved to have around.

Even though they decided to let Moana go and buried her, Grif was still mourning. He was still sad about her death and extremely cuddly at the moment.

He had been angry towards her when she joined their pack again some weeks ago.

The wolven inside of Grif knew why she had left it before, as did the human Grif. But unlike the wolven, the human part of his being was still angry at her for leaving them so suddenly when they had been so young.

Grif hadn't been able to be a kid during his youth because of that. He had to grow up in less than two months, locking the child away and taking over the adult responsibilities for both himself and his sister.

However, after some weeks had passed, and close to when the assault had started, the relationship between Grif and his mother had gotten progressively better.

Moana had taken over the responsibilities she had left to him before and had apologized for her behavior, explaining everything to her oldest son that he had ever wanted to know about what had happened, as well as receiving all of his anger without throwing it back at him in any way.

It was his right to be angry, after all. She had told him that on more than one occasion.

When they started the assault, Grif and his mom were once again as close as a son and mother could be, if not closer on account of what had happened in the past and their lengthy discussions about everything.

Her death caused a huge black hole to appear in the middle of his life, swallowing everything around him and his mother. Throwing him into a deep grief, even deeper than Kai's.

Which was because Grif was the Alpha and his mom had died while being a part of his pack. Alphas always mourn the death of their pack members more intensely as though they always thought it was somehow their fault that the member had died.

That made Simmons understand why Grif was acting so strange these days, why he was being so clingy.

As his mate, he was the one that Grif would turn to whenever he needed mental and physical support.

Lying in his bed, the redhead felt Grif shift slightly, shuffling closer. Simmons felt as though Grif was instinctively following him whenever he moved away even only a slight little bit.

After hours of lying on his side, Simmons moved around a bit in order to lie on his back.

Grif was still clutching his shirt in his sleep.

He furrowed his brows, as if he was noticing something odd in his sleep before his features relaxed again and he carried on with his dozing.

This particular situation was actually rather unusual.

Normally, it would be Grif lying in the position Simmons was currently in and Simmons would be the one leaning against him as Grif was doing now.

Well, considering what had happened… it wasn't really all that surprising that some things might also change, huh?

Gently, Simmons started to card his fingers through Grif's black hair.

He knew that the wolven liked him doing that. It had a quiet, relaxing effect on the wolven that made him let go of his worries and his fears. That allowed him to be able to sleep soundly despite whatever might have kept him up otherwise.

And Grif needed his sleep right now.

During the last couple of hours, Simmons realized that Grif wasn't really sleeping well. He might be sleeping deeply at the moment, but his mind was still working in overdrive.

This, in the end, meant that the wolven had to sleep more to be at least somewhat relaxed during the day.

A knock was heard on the door and Kai entered some moments later to sit down on the mattress beside the two young men.

Ever since their mother had died, Kai had slept here too. Simmons knew it had something to do with another element of the pack: they were staying even closer together when they lost a pack member recently.

Sure, Kai would go back to her room when she felt better later but since their mom's death was still something that had happened recently, Simmons couldn't begrudge Kai for wanting to be close to what was left of her pack and family.

When she was comfortably lying on her bed, Simmons heard her saying something. He almost ended up not catching it because she was talking so lowly: "How is Dex?"

Simmons turned his head, watching the wolven lying there and sleeping soundly. He looked more relaxed than he had ever been during the last few days.

"He's still catching up on all of the sleep he'd missed. I guess he hasn't had much of the decent sleep he always insisted on having during his naps." Simmons felt Grif moving a bit but the other man still was out cold, "We should let him rest more."

Kai sat up, lying her arms on the bed that Simmons and Grif were resting on and putting her head on her arms.

"He's such a stupid fuck sometimes." the female wolven muttered, although her tone was soft and her features showed her obvious fondness for her older sibling, "He always thought that he had to be the strong one of the family: taking over everything just to let me grow up normally. He should have said something so that he wouldn't have had to carry all of that weight on his own." She stated softly, still staring at Dex's sleeping face.

Simmons laughed lowly, "Isn't that a trait of an Alpha though?" he asked her with slight amusement in his voice, "Taking over all of the responsibility for the rest of his pack members?"

Kai blinked at that a few times, obviously pretty taken aback by Simmons' response to what she had just said before also starting to laugh herself. "Right, he's an Alpha through and through." she agreed through her peals of sudden laughter, "Although I sometimes wish he would come to me with what is bothering him. Or at least tell you about it." She looked up at the redhead on the bed, mirroring his smile with one of her own.

"I'm glad that you seem to have found your place in our pack and are starting to think like a wolven at least." She added, reaching out to ruffle her own hand through Grif's hair.

Her older brother scrunched up his nose and Simmons chuckled a bit at the way his face looked just then in slumber, "Yeah, I suppose none of you have really left me much of a choice at this point about that."

"Of course we did." Kai remarked in amusement, again resting her head on her arms, "You could have walked away at any time. It was your decision to stay, which, in the end, lead to the fact that you became a part of the pack. So it's really more your fault, if you think about it!"

This time Simmons couldn't help but laugh again.

Since he had gotten to know Kai better and better, he had come to realize that she definitely wasn't that stupid or anything of the sort behind the mask of obliviousness she often put up and the cheerful but always head-scratching phrases she used to throw people off guard and show off her more fun-loving and carefree side with.

She was a smart and caring young girl. A beautiful woman and a great pack member to be around. She was actually the one girl that Simmons was able to get along best with here at the Sanctuary now.

"Could you stop railing on and on about me? I'm trying to sleep here!" Grif grumbled from his spot on Simmons' chest, but he still didn't bother moving more than was absolutely necessary to do.

"Aw, and now he's awake!" Kai mocked, smiling fondly as she saw Grif opening his eyes. Simmons saw at first glance of the other waking man that he still was far from being relaxed.

Grif still had dark rings under his eyes. They were swollen and puffy still, and quite red. Simmons could even sense in a way that he was lacking his usual strength.

"How do you feel?" Simmons asked, observing the Alpha with a worried look crossing over his features.

Grif just shrugged at the question before sitting up and searching for the bottle of water that had been left standing on the nightstand by Simmons' bed.

"You look like shit." Oh wow… thanks, Kai, for that wonderfully accurate assessment of the situation.

Simmons suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. The younger Grif sibling wasn't really one for tact.

"Tell me about it. Want to switch places?" Grif grumbled in response.

He laid back down, obviously wanting to continue sleeping.

"Grif." Simmons rested a hand on Grif's shoulder to get his attention.

"Grmpf." Grif turned around and mumbled into the pillow, obviously trying to showcase that he didn't want to talk currently.

"Grif, sit up. Please." Simmons urged.

"No."

At least the reply was a bit clearer this time.

"Yes. Now sit up." Simmons ordered, pulling Grif up into a sitting position without much effort or resistance from the other party.

Grif seemed just as surprised as Kai and Simmons were as Grif simply sat there, allowing himself to be pulled up by the lanky redhead.

"You're acting strange." Simmons started.

Grif snorted at that, "What a surprise, considering my mom just died and everything."

Simmons sighed, "No, that's not what I meant." He informed him gently, "You're all closed up. We want to help you, so stop dicking around and let us help."

Grif crossed his arms and looked away.

Simmons sighed again, "Hey."

Grif looked back around to look directly at Simmons once more, waiting for him to continue with whatever else he was going to say.

"I know you are our Alpha." Simmons gestured between himself, Kai, and Grif, "But sometimes, even Alphas need help. Or they need to talk to someone." He was actually surprised at how much earnestness there was in his voice just then instead of nervousness.

"We want to help you, Grif, so please… let us help." Simmons finished, not looking away when he saw Grif's eyes harden at his words. He knew that Grif was a proud man and more stubborn than most gave him credit for.

That's what was making it so difficult to get through to the wolven currently.

"No Alpha should ever need or get help from other pack members." Grif replied, still trying to get away from the topic at hand with a lame excuse.

Simmons sighed again for what felt like the umpteenth time that day.

"Then you'll be the first one." Simmons replied calmly, looking at Grif with an unwavering gaze, "Didn't you once tell me that every pack has its own unique dynamics? That every pack works differently?" He continued on before Grif could think up some kind of counter-response to that, "And in this pack… we really want to help you carry all of this weight that's been on your shoulders." Simmons explained, gently squeezing the shoulder his hand still was lying on, "Together."

Grif didn't reply and instead shot an insecure and questioning look over to Kai just then, who was nodding frantically in agreement with what the redhead had just said, before looking back over at Simmons with the same questioning look on his face, who smiled warmly in response and nodded.

"You talking to us in order to let us help in finding solutions for any problems you're facing doesn't mean we think less of you as the Alpha you are. Or that we won't accept you anymore or some bullshit like that." He assured the wolven, "You are still our Alpha and our leader. We just want to help you possibly with some open ideas and a fresh view on problems in order to get them solved quicker."

Grif still seemed insecure, glancing from Kai to Simmons and back before asking lowly, "Really?"

"Sure! You're still my awesome big brother and the best Alpha I have ever had!" Kai exclaimed with a happy and loving smile on her face.

Looking over at Simmons, he could see the redhead smiling, "See, Grif? It's the same for me too. You're not anything less for sharing your problems with us." He assured him, "After all… isn't that what mates, family, and friends are there for?"

It only took a few more moments before Grif exhaled deeply and suddenly, as if a dam had just broken.

Everything bubbled up to the surface with Grif beginning to tell them about all of the things that were keeping him up at night, what was constantly worrying him these days, and what types of problems he was going through. He talked about what had happened in the past as well, which was something he still hadn't come to terms with either.

Kai and Simmons just listened to what Grif was telling them as it continued pouring forth from his mouth now that he had started doing so.

Simmons sat beside the wolven and had an arm around his boyfriend for added comfort while he was talking.

Neither Simmons nor Kai commented on Grif crying and looking horrible, akin to a lost puppy sitting out in the rain.

It was a strange comparison, but Simmons actually thought of it as being a rather accurate one.

Grif was lost at the moment. He needed someone to look after him and show him that it was okay not to be okay with everything happening all the time.

When Grif was finished talking, they all sat there in silence for some moments before Kai slowly started talking and telling Grif her own story.

Afterwards, it was Simmons' turn.

It took them hours to talk amongst themselves about the things that were keeping Grif up, but eventually they had talked about pretty much everything and anything one could think of.

The wolven siblings had gotten tired and sleepy during the last half hour of the discussion, so Simmons decided it would be best for everyone to call it a day and go to bed.

Checking the clock informed him that it was already around midnight.

Kai lied down on the guest bed beside Simmons' own, while Grif and the redhead lied down on the comfy bed together once more with Grif again cuddling close to the redhead.

Simmons didn't mind Grif doing that, truly.

Simmons actually felt a lot better about everything since Grif had shared what was bothering him with them.

He began to card his fingers through Grif's black hair to get them both to relax, and he could feel Grif sigh contentedly at Simmons' actions.

This time, however, Grif didn't seem to pass out right away but lifted his head to capture Simmons' lips with his own.

When they separated shortly after, Simmons smiled warmly as he heard Grif mutter, "Thank you, Simmons. I didn't think that would help any but I actually feel a lot better now."

Simmons' smile became even fonder when he replied, "Hey… that's what mates are for, right?"

"Right." Grif responded lowly, a smile still playing around the corners of his mouth.

Leaning in again, the redhead stole another kiss from the wolven before lying down again, "You should sleep now too." Simmons whispered, once more starting to card his fingers through Grif's hair.

"Mhm. Night." Grif muttered in response.

Simmons was fairly certain that Grif didn't even hear Simmons' muttered reply in the same vein as his own just then as the wolven was already out like a light only seconds later. He really must have been tired and worn out, given all of the things that had happened over the years and, especially, during these last few mournful days.

That thought had him pulling Grif even closer to him in a comforting embrace.


	36. Chapter 36

It took Grif several days to get back to normal. Or, at the very least, to be relatively close to normal once more given everything that had happened.

He was still very cuddly and affectionate, often snuggling close to the redhead and just wanting to be closer to his mate.

Simmons actually wasn't fighting with the wolven over anything, only attempting to gently coax him into going for a walk or taking part in other activities that would hopefully help to take Grif's mind off of his mother's passing.

Most of the time whenever Simmons' tasks would allow it, they would be lying on the bed-closely huddled together with Grif being unusually quiet and touchy.

Simmons didn't really mind in the slightest. He liked having the wolven close by like that.

Sometimes when they were doing that, Grif would tell him stories of his childhood.

 _Like what it had been like when he first changed into his human form: when his mom and his dad had been absolutely delighted when he had shown up with his messy black hair, blue eyes, and tan skin with a little bit of chub too. They had been so happy then, he still remembered his mother and father beaming at their child's human form with pride._

 _They went to the store next with him, buying him his first sets of clothes that he had ever needed and even those he wanted to have no matter how expensive they were once his younger mind had fixated on them._

Simmons carded through Grif's black hair with his fingers, knowing well enough how to get the wolven to relax and let go by this point.

 _There was the time when his mom was pregnant and had become rather moody as Kai's birth got closer._

 _Grif long ago had to accept that he wasn't going to be the only child in the pack and that he would have to share his parents' affection with his sister. He didn't mind that truthfully, but he still was a bit jealous._

 _When the little pup was born, he was allowed to go in to visit his mother and new little sister after his dad had welcomed the newest member to their pack and had gotten to see his daughter for the first time._

 _When Grif walked in, Kai was drinking milk from her mom—both of them in wolven form. Grif also was in his wolven form, not wanting to freak his little sister out._

 _He walked closer carefully, first waiting for his mom to give him her permission to approach the little pup._

 _Female wolvens who had just birthed a pup could be fiercely protective and moody when someone got too close to their newborn without permission first._

 _Grif was carefully nudging the pup with his nose, flinching back a bit when she whined and snuggled closer to her mother. She growled lightly as though saying 'Watch out!' to her oldest child but still feeling comfortable enough to leave him with his sister._

 _Sniffing the little baby anxiously, he noticed both the smell of blood and of his mother. He smelled her unique scent underneath, but since she had been born so shortly before the scent of blood and his mom was still overwhelming._

 _Some minutes later, Grif lied down beside the family group-simply lying beside them and watching the little pup find her way around in her surroundings._

He laughed, saying to Simmons that he still remembered what he thought back then. How he reflected on how that must have been what he had looked like back then about two hours following when he had been born himself. Wondering if he had also been a whining little ball of fur clinging to his mom and then soon trying to find his place in life.

He also remembered, some weeks later as he observed Kai growing up, that when he had been trying to walk for the first time that it had also been more stumbling around and falling on his nose more often than not.

At another time following that, they had been lying on the bed together with Simmons once more carding his fingers through Grif's hair.

It had been a rough day for him.

Simmons couldn't chalk it up to just one event in particular, but he knew that Grif had a bad day in general. He was grumpy, bad tempered, somewhat sad, and introverted when they had met up again at their shared room.

On this day he told him another story of his life back when his pack had still been together and were a happy family.

Sure, Simmons hadn't been a part of the pack then, but it had still been perfect in its very own way back then from his childhood perspective.

 _When he was a bit older, he had gotten his first heat cycle and began fighting with his dad for the leadership of the pack._

 _Grif had gotten beat up pretty badly. His dad was going easy on him actually, he was not biting him or hurting him too severely even when he had ample opportunity to do so given Grif's inexperience: rather he was just immobilizing him and making him give up so that they wouldn't fight anymore._

 _He had to accept then that he wasn't ready to be the leader of the pack._

 _Only months later, his dad died in another battle for the leadership of the pack…resulting in his mother leaving him and Kai, who had just turned into her human form a month before their parents left, alone._

 _Kai tried not to show it, but Grif was certain that she was suffering due to the fact that their parents weren't there any longer._

 _Grif did his best to be there for her. He took her out to the mall, shopping for clothes together with her for her birthday. He noticed that something was off though-months later, they would find out that she was color blind. There was nothing he could do for her on that front though at the moment, instead trying to do what he could by offering support elsewhere…helping her continue to shop for clothes and then make sure that she had something to eat, no matter if that meant that Grif would have to go to bed hungry for the next few days._

 _But hey, his sister had just turned human for the first time and it was her birthday six months later. Besides, she was growing so fast all the time, she needed new clothes almost every month! She was always trying to keep a smile on her face despite everything, cheering Grif up when he felt like everything got too much. To Grif, every day of being hungry was fucking worth it if it was for her sake!_

Simmons laughed lowly.

"So this is some kind of major event for you wolvens when you turn for the first time then?"

Grif nodded which was a strange feeling as his face was still pressed against Simmons' chest, "Yes, you can say it's like a second birthday. It's a great day for a wolven." Grif explained, a fond smile playing along his lips when he thought back on his sister's big day.

Although they were arguing constantly, they were as close as was possible for any sibling to be to one another. Their whole arguing and bantering back-and-forth was just a natural part of their dynamic, actually.

This arguing was something unique to their relationship, similar in a way to the bantering in Grif and Simmons' own relationship.

They were so close, you couldn't put a sheet of paper in-between them so to speak.

"Is this something only pureblood wolvens celebrate?" Simmons asked, rather curious.

"I don't know, actually. Guess that's something every pack handles differently." Grif remarked after pondering over his boyfriend's question for several moments.

Right. The wolven had grown up in a pack of pureblood wolvens, not knowing how anything would be handled if someone was introduced to the pack who had been turned and hadn't been born a wolven.

"Would you celebrate it then, if you had turned someone in your pack?"

Grif looked up then, a bit startled and confused by the question, so Simmons hurried to explain what he meant by it, "Only hypothetically speaking. Like… imagine if you had a turned one in your pack."

Grif again lapsed into silence, obviously mulling over what Simmons had just asked him.

"It's difficult to say for certain. I guess I would still celebrate the first full conscious change from wolven to human and back again if I had a turned one in my pack." the Hawaiian replied with a thoughtful voice.

"A conscious change?" Simmons asked, looking down at the wolven resting on his chest.

"Yeah." Grif responded and promptly started to explain further at Simmons' questioning expression, "You know, when someone gets turned-they miss years and years of changing and living in a wolven body like we purebloods are used to doing." He informed him.

"So your body changes to a wolven form and stays in it for some time to get you used to this new form too and to get acquainted to the mindset you have as a wolven. You cannot turn consciously then." Grif continued, fiddling a bit in order to change his position.

He had been lying for hours in the same position, so it was no wonder that he was starting to feel sore.

Simmons let the wolven change his resting position just then, waiting for the Hawaiian to continue.

"Your body decides when you turn and for how long. It takes some time until your body, instincts, and mind gets used to the new second form you are able to take up." Grif informed him, Simmons humming along with the explanations to let the other know that he was listening.

"So, like, that takes some time to do." Grif repeated, "I've heard from others that the amount of time is different for every individual who is turned. Everyone is able to control the changes, although your instinct will always tell you when to change. But at some point after your turning, you can control that instinct and just not react to it." Grif shrugged, obviously not really knowing what else he could say more on the subject of the turned ones since he obviously didn't know any turned ones himself.

"So turned ones have something like an acclimatization period where they cannot decide which form they want to be in as their whole being needs to get used to the changes from the bite." Simmons repeated the information he had just heard, looking at Grif thoughtfully, "But they will be able to control it later though, once their body, mind, and instincts are somewhat use to being a wolven?"

"Yeah, something like that. Dunno, it's what I learned from my mom way back when." Grif replied, shrugging his shoulders again.

"It's okay, it's more information than I expected. As far as I know, you never had a turned one in your pack, right?" Simmons smiled, easing a knot out of Grif's hair.

The wolven rumbled contentedly.

"Nope, it was only ever me and my sister after my mom left." He told him, "I didn't accept another member into the pack until we got here and you showed up."

"You wouldn't have accepted me if it wasn't for your sister." the redhead replied dryly.

 _Kai had a very bad cough at the time, and since Kimball knew that Simmons wanted to follow in her footsteps, she made him her assistant when she treated Kai's cough._

 _She had also ordered him to stay around the wolven girl and help her with her daily routines or inform Kimball should her cough get worse._

 _The female wolven had immediately accepted him as her personal shadow: playing with him, talking both of his ears off during the day (at least it had felt like that), and using him as a living heater during the night whenever the chill from her fever was stronger._

 _Grif had been very wary, almost a bit aggressive, when Simmons got too close to Kai._

 _It took days as Kai slowly got better until Grif started to relax, slowly realizing that Simmons meant no harm. And Grif had also realized by that point that he had no choice but to accept the redhead into the group as Kai had obviously already decided to make him a part of her pack._

 _Simmons hadn't known how to react to all of that back then, what with Kai already clearly having decided about his future considering that the Grif pack would be living in the Sanctuary._

 _When Grif changed to his human form for the first time following that, they had their first banter._

 _God, had Simmons thought of him being handsome back then when he first saw him and had been blushing like crazy throughout the whole thing._

 _They argued about Grif not having the decency to turn beforehand to thank Kimball for taking them in._

 _Grif had rolled his eyes, calling the redhead a suck up, which was promptly replied to with Simmons calling him a lazy ass. They kept on with their banter for minutes, Kai lying beside Simmons and sleeping soundly through the whole thing._

 _She had gotten better soon after, her cough vanishing as she started getting up and running through the Sanctuary with her usual cheeriness and energy that she still displayed, even to this day after she had recovered from her grief over the loss of her mom._

 _Grif had accepted Simmons as a companion by then and did not act aggressive towards him anymore afterwards, even turning from time to time just to spend time with the redhead. Sometimes they would sit in amicable silence, sometimes they would banter back-and-forth, and sometimes Simmons would explain something to Grif._

 _Soon after Grif had accepted the redhead as a companion to their pack, he started pulling Simmons out of his panic attacks. When he was freaking out, Grif would appear as either a human or a wolven, and would sit or lie down beside the panicking redhead and just chill out while Simmons slowly calmed down from rising sense of fear._

Simmons smiled, still carding his fingers through Grif's hair. He lightly scratched his fingernails over the wolven's scalp, earning a contented hum from the wolven in turn.

His other hand, which had been resting on his hip until then, started moving—rubbing gentle circles into Grif's waist.

Sometime later, he let that hand move up to Grif's shoulder, his fingers trailing along the other man's spine.

When his hand wandered back down, he let it travel over Grif's side, earning a shudder and a contended sigh from his boyfriend. He could feel him cuddle closer.

A smile played along Simmons' lips.

 _It didn't take long for the people of the Sanctuary to know that they were official. Simmons mostly heard things along the lines of "Finally! I thought you guys were never going to get your shit sorted out!" when the topic was brought up._

 _It was… embarrassing and surprising at first, but later on it was annoying and still embarrassing. He often used to turn beet red and spluttered around until Grif standing beside him would flip the person off with a nonchalant answer and a peck on Simmons' lips before he would drag the still spluttering redhead away from the person they were just talking to._

 _It was something that bothered Simmons for some time. Everyone seemed to have known that they were a thing before they had even known what they were. So was that why everyone said something about them finally getting their shit straight?_

 _Okay, putting Tucker aside since he was only talking perverted nonsense and wanting to know all of the dirty details. Donut also was down for the dirty details, but neither Grif nor Simmons did them the favor of telling them anything. (And, besides? They hadn't even had sex yet actually. Simmons felt his cheeks starting to heat up when he thought about that.)_

 _But the rest of them? Well he had to admit that they were maybe just a little bit obvious with their feelings even when neither of them had realized that they were a thing actually. It seems like everyone else already knew._

 _Simmons had sighed back then, deciding to just view it like that and stop thinking about it as he would only start to overthink things and freak out once more._

 _Grif was lying down beside Simmons and pulled him into a tight hug just then, a deep kiss chasing away all of the remaining thoughts lingering in his head._

 _Without really realizing it, Simmons was already replying to the kiss—wanting to just enjoy the moment with Grif being there._

 _They kept on making out for more than an hour before they finally fell asleep, closely cuddled up beside each other._

When Grif spoke next, Simmons could hear the smug smile in his voice.

"Watch out, man, that kind of turns me on."

He hadn't opened his eyes, shuddering from time to time while he enjoyed their time together with Simmons caressing him like that.

"Uh, what?" Simmons squeaked, his voice starting to raise in pitch.

"You rubbing me like that. That's kind of hot. I like it." Grif rumbled, turning his head up to let his lips ghost against Simmons' throat.

Kai had moved back to her room some days ago, so they didn't need to fear her barging in suddenly.

"You… like that?" It took Simmons some moments to understand what his love had just told him.

He shuddered when he felt the wolven's lips continue to ghost over his throat down to the spot right over his collar bone.

Grif shifted, bracing his weight on one of his arms to reach more of Simmons to kiss. His free hand started roaming over the clothed chest of the redhead, making him shudder and sigh lowly.

Grif rumbled in his throat when he felt Simmons' hand wander lower, over his ass and up his back again, starting to caress spots he hadn't been able to caress before when Grif was still lying on his side.

A low moan escaped Simmons' throat when he felt the wolven's hand wander over his chest down to his waistband. A full body shudder made him tremble when Grif's slightly cold hand slipped under the shirt and wandered the whole way back up to his chest.

The redhead got somewhat curious and brave as well, letting his hand slip underneath the wolven's shirt to explore the skin underneath.

With that same motion, Simmons managed to pull the wolven on top of him. His boyfriend complied with Simmons' request with a hum, moving to lie between his legs.

That? That position was definitely good.

Simmons was now able to reach all of Grif's upper body, letting his hands roam over the Hawaiian's upper body and earning shudders, sighs, hums, and low moans from Grif as a reward.

That was something absolutely amazing and incredible to witness, and Simmons asked himself why they hadn't tried this out earlier.

But considering what they had gone through, both of them, it was understandable that they hadn't been in the mood or hadn't had time for more intimate interactions before now.

So the prospect of them doing so now?

Considering they both were pretty onboard with what they were doing at the moment, the time seemed to be perfect.


	37. Chapter 37

Weeks had passed since Grif's mother passed away.

Kai was back to her perky self around others, but she would often want to be with her brother and Simmons when she felt especially bad.

Yesterday, she had been sleeping in Simmons' room once more because she had a nightmare right at the beginning of the night.

She had come over with a low whine which Simmons heard and promptly let her in the room.

She had been in her wolven form.

It was pretty normal for wolvens to turn to their second form when they were afraid, on account of instincts and the like.

Gently getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed, he petted Kai's head until she fell asleep on the mattress still beside the bed.

Afterwards, Simmons went to bed while embracing Grif who had already started to get impatient and had begun searching for his missing mate.

On the following day, Grif went to work, Kai to school, and Simmons completed the tasks he had gotten from Kimball now that Grif was doing better. When the Grif siblings' mother had died, she had told him to look after the pack and let others cover the rest of his duties.

Since both of them were doing a lot better now, Kimball had started to give him other tasks again. If he was quick and went to work right after the breakfast, he usually was able to take a break around the time when Kai came back from school. He would do homework with her, trying to help her as best he could.

Ever since his injuries, Simmons had learned a lot about the pack, wolvens, and their dynamics. Since he had learnt so much, he often explained to the wolven girl scholarly things in wolven terms. Since he had started to explain things in that way to her, her grades had gotten progressively better and he even had managed to help raise her grades up about one mark.

Grif was pretty proud of Kai for making such good progress and proud of his mate for helping her in that pursuit as well.

When they were done with the homework, Kai often helped the redhead with the rest of his duties.

With Kai's help, Simmons was able to finish his tasks before Grif would return from the lumberyard and meet him at the mess hall for dinner.

Today was no different.

Simmons waited beside the entry to the mess hall with Grif showing up around dinnertime, sawdust still in his hair.

*Hey." Simmons greeted, leaning down to kiss the wolven who was already leaning into him.

"Hey." Grif replied after breaking the kiss, looking tired as fuck.

"How was your work?" Simmons asked, leading Grif into the mess hall and to the line to get food.

"Fine." Grif mumbled, standing close to Simmons.

Simmons could already tell that Grif apparently had a fucking bad day and that Simmons would have a short night as a result of that.

At least it was Friday.

Dwelling on the day more, he realized that it had been pretty much exactly six months since Moana had died.

No wonder Grif seemed to be in such a bad mood, he obviously was aware of that too.

Dinner was pretty silent, with Grif eating only one dish instead of his usual two before announcing that he had eaten enough and that he wanted to go to his room. Or to the room that Simmons and Grif shared.

Simmons finished his dinner quickly before walking with Grif to their room.

Grif shortly left to shower and get rid of the sweat and the sawdust of his work.

Simmons sat on the bed, waiting for the wolven to return.

When he did, the redhead patted the spot beside him, wordlessly asking for the wolven to sit with him.

Grif did as asked, sitting down beside his boyfriend although he still wasn't talking. Simmons didn't feel bothered by that.

When his boyfriend was so badly off, it was better to wait until he began talking on his own. Coaxing only helped in particular cases, but in this situation Simmons knew that he would start talk on his own. Simmons was pretty sure about that by now.

The only thing the redhead did was take the towel off of Grif's shoulders and start to dry his hair. It had become some kind of routine between the two of them, both of them highly enjoyed the activity.

Indeed, Simmons had just started drying his mate's dark, black hair when the wolven started telling him something. It was something that had happened recently, evidently.

 _During the time when Grif's mother was in the quarantine area, they often used to talk in their human form together with Moana taking all of the anger that her son directed towards her._

 _Simmons had known that Grif understood why his mom had reacted the way she did, but was still pretty hurt because she had left him without any notice when he was still so young and so inexperienced._

 _They had talked for hours, Grif telling Simmons that he had felt like they were getting along better with every passing day._

 _This, however, changed when his mom was released from the quarantine she had been under and was moved to his room._

 _She often stayed in her wolven form, as she obviously preferred this form over the other. Kai was often over whenever she had time, enjoying being with their mom._

 _Grif also was over there often, but whenever he visited he would come back to their now shared room pretty pissed off._

 _Simmons knew that because Grif often used to huff and sleep alone on the mattress beside the bed, which was a pretty good indicator that he didn't feel like talking and needed some time to get his shit straight._

 _Simmons never questioned what had happened, but now felt bad for not having asked as he heard the reason for Grif's bad moods back then now._

 _During the times when Grif was visiting her and Kai, Moana often questioned his ability to lead a pack, often making attempts to take over the leadership of the pack again just as she had done for her pups during the time when they had been young._

 _Female wolven were something akin to an Alpha for their pups until they left the pack. The Alpha of the group would need the permission of a female to interact with their pups._

 _Simmons didn't know if that was some kind of peculiar habit that Moana displayed in wanting to take over the lead of the group like she had before. Simmons didn't think of her to be power hungry, rather he more suspected her of being extremely protective of her pups and wanting to lead them to keep them safe — to give them the advantage of her experience concerning pack dynamics and everything._

 _Grif, however, being the Alpha that he was, didn't accept her questioning him._

 _Simmons had heard some noise around that time coming from the Grif Family's room, but he had chalked it up to Kai, Grif, or both having a little fun-fight—just slobbering around and playing like they sometimes did._

 _When Grif came back following the noise later on, the redhead noticed that his left ear was ripped. It never healed properly—even now, his left ear was still ripped. It was visible in both his human and his wolven forms._

 _To hide it, Simmons patched it up himself and together they decided to tell Grif's boss that he had gotten into a brawl and had gotten a ripped ear because of that._

 _Somehow, his boss seemed to have accepted the explanation and Grif kept the bandage on for some days following to hide his unusually fast healing ability as a wolven._

 _What he heard now from Grif about the incident was that both Grif and Moana had been brawling for the leadership of the pack with Kai keeping in a corner of the room, avoiding the fight._

 _Grif, although he had gotten bitten and had some pretty heavy bruises scattered all over his body due the skirmish, hadn't hurt his mom._

 _He had gone easy on her just like his dad did when he had gotten defiant towards the leadership of his dad years ago._

 _His mom luckily hadn't been hurt, and neither had Kai._

 _Only Grif received a ripped ear as a result of things, but at least his mother had accepted him as Alpha of the pack and acquiesced to his lead._

 _Although Grif's lead of the pack was settled now, he had been careful about his mom's actions for the next few days until he started trusting her again and accepting her as full-fledged member of the pack._

 _Although she was his mom, she was the lowest ranked member of the pack and was even underneath Simmons in the group dynamic despite him not really being a wolven. She had to earn her place again first._

All the while as Grif was telling his story, Simmons dried the wolven's hair, although the hair was dry by now and Simmons was just running the towel over his hair still to put his boyfriend at ease to make him tell the story through to its end.

"So your ear injury didn't come from a friendly brawl like you said?" Sure, Simmons felt a bit betrayed and hurt that Grif had lied to him about what had happened before now, but he didn't say a word about that.

"Yeah, I… It's something which only concerns the Alpha and the wolven getting cheeky." Grif muttered, leaning back into the redhead's chest.

"You didn't say what really happened because that's something that only concerns the wolvens directly involved in the brawl?" Simmons asked again, looking down at the wolven's closed eyes.

Grif only nodded, sighing lowly when Simmons put the towel aside and started carding his fingers through the Hawaiian's hair once more, easing out the knots.

"I'm actually pretty impressed that you didn't hurt her for ripping your ear apart." Simmons remarked with a proud note in his voice for Grif acting so grown up.

"She is… was my mom, after all." Grif muttered, correcting himself when he realized that he was still talking of his mom in present tense instead of past tense.

"Yeah, but not everyone can act so cool when they are getting hurt." Simmons replied with a fond smile, pressing a kiss to Grif's temple.

Grif only hummed, prompting Simmons to add, "Although your ripped ear does look pretty badass.

He could see a smile play along Grif's lips when he heard the comment, opening his eyes to look up at the redhead.

"You think?"

"Absolutely, it's awesome." Simmons agreed, letting his fingers travel over the ripped ear of the wolven, and causing him to shudder at the contact.

Grif had once told him that his ear now felt a bit like being wrapped up in cotton because of the destroyed nerves there. Simmons highly doubted the nerves would come back right around the scar.

It was some kind of an experience thing, actually. His left side also felt like it was packed up in cotton at some parts of his body because of the scar tissue and the destroyed nerves from the fire and the subsequent burns he had received.

Grif huffed, again leaning back and closing his eyes with a smile on his lips.

"You know, although I often didn't share the same opinion with my mom… I miss her." Grif spoke up suddenly, his voice filled with sadness.

"That's absolutely normal." Simmons told him, easing out another knot in the wolven's hair, "She was your mom, after all, and if your dad hadn't died in that battle before… you would have been with her even longer, don't you think?"

Grif nodded again, Simmons only registering his nod by feeling his head move over his collar bone. She was a good mom for the time she was with us." The Hawaiian said thoughtfully.

"I am sure of that. Kai and you turned out pretty well, at least." He placed another kiss to the temple of the wolven.

Said guy only huffed in reply, "In Kai's case, it was mostly me raising her."

"I know." Simmons replied calmly, continuing to card his fingers through Grif's hair, "But for you being able to raise your sister so well on your own, you needed parents who raised you well. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to teach Kai the things she knows now."

Grif fell silent for a moment, obviously pondering over what Simmons had just told him.

"Maybe you're right." Grif muttered, again opening his eyes to stare at a faraway place.

Simmons suspected that Grif's thoughts had drifted to a place in his past.

"Hey, take it as that." Simmons told him, shoving Grif lightly to pull him out of his thoughts. Indeed, the wolven blinked several times before getting back to reality.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Grif replied more acutely, his voice still thoughtful due to the heavy subject they were discussing.

"I _am_ right." For once, Simmons decided to play the cocky asshole a bit in order to make Grif believe his words just then, "I am your mate and I am telling you that I am right."

Grif huffed once more with an amused smile twitched over his features, "Yeah, sure… who are you trying to fool, nerd?"

"I'm trying to fool you." Simmons deadpanned, although he was still smiling fondly.

Grif sighed in exasperation at that, but he was still smiling the same fond smile that the redhead had on his face, "Dunno, I don't think that's convincing me completely."

Simmons scratched Grif's scalp lightly, earning a contended hum from the wolven before he answered,

"At least it works halfway so I guess it's a win still."

"Always trying to think positive, nerd?" Grif raised an eyebrow in fake incredulity at that, "What happened to my anxious and always freaking out boyfriend? Just who are you?"

Simmons laughed lowly at Grif's last comment, "People change. I guess I have too."

"You? Never." Was the dry reply of the wolven, although the smile was still evident in his voice.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Simmons responded, his voice thoughtful, "I still panic, but not as quickly as I used to before. I guess you've rubbed off on me."

"You know that Tucker would be so happy hearing you using innuendos?" Grif sat up, looking at the redhead with an amused glint in his eyes.

Simmons felt his face heating up while he pulled on a grimace, "Ugh… way to ruin the moment, Grif."

"What?" he gasped in fake shock, "You're the one who started in with the innuendos!"

"Yeah, but I didn't bring up Tucker when we were having a moment." Simmons retorted, enjoying the banter going on between them.

"Oh? We were having a moment?" Grif asked, although Simmons couldn't tell if he was fooling around or serious.

"Yes, Grif, we were having a moment and you just successfully and thoroughly ruined it." the redhead replied sarcastically, but his smile betrayed his words.

"So? Even if we did just have one, what if I don't give a fuck?" Grif's laidback attitude was shining through again.

"Yeah, I know. But what if I do give a fuck?" Simmons replied, playing the hurt partner and the drama queen just to fool around with Grif.

"Well, that's your problem." Grif shot back, although he took a moment to read Simmons' face to find out if he being was serious or not.

Simmons laughed lowly, checking the clock before asking, "It's pretty late. How about we go to bed and sleep in?"

"Good idea." Grif responded, although both of them knew that Simmons would get up around nine to get his tasks done regardless of when they went to bed. Grif shortly stopped before adding, "By sleeping in, do you mean…?"

Simmons, who had already gotten up and changed, walked back to the bed and lied down before saying,

"That's completely open to interpretation. But you better get changed now and get into bed with me regardless." He grinned wolfishly which was rather unusual for the redhead, causing Grif to shudder and hurry to get changed.

Throwing on his favorite orange shirt and some boxers, he soon toddled over to the bed and slipped under the covers beside the redhead.

Simmons didn't care if Grif was in the mood right now, or would be later on, or would be ever this night.

He left it to Grif to decide when the time was right for him, not wanting to hurry him.

When Grif leaned up to steal a kiss from the redhead, Simmons knew that they would first sleep before sleep.

Simmons could understand pretty well why Grif wasn't in the mood for sex considering the death of his mom and the rather sad mood he had been in during the whole day. He needed some distance and time from the things the wolven had told the redhead just moments before.

Simmons didn't question or chide him for this decision. Firstly because as had already been said, he had left it open for the wolven to decide when he was ready for it. Besides, considering what had just happened, Simmons would have probably had more problems understanding the wolven if Grif had decided that he wanted to go at it right away.

But… Thinking of it more, both outcomes were entirely plausible.

Some people didn't feel up for it right after telling someone a story like that or after an intense moment, whereas other people just wanted to take their minds off of recent happening if they were particularly upsetting ones.

And what helped better to take their minds off of something than sex?

Simmons knew he would feel sore tomorrow in that case, but he didn't care.

He liked it too much, loved Grif too much, and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing what reaction he could tease out of the wolven with which action.

However, Grif cuddling close to him and resting his head on the redhead's chest was enough for him now. He embraced the wolven tightly, replying to the kiss when the wolven straightened up to kiss Simmons.

When Grif settled back, Simmons pressed a kiss into Grif's freshly washed hair which smelled of pineapple and passion fruit, a smell Simmons immediately connected with Hawaii.

Grif fell asleep pretty quickly afterwards, Simmons following suit when he was sure that the wolven was sleeping soundly.


	38. Chapter 38

Grif got better with each passing week. Both Grif siblings were back to their usual selves with every day their mom's death became further away in time from the present.

The only thing that Simmons noticed that was odd and that he had quite some trouble with was that Grif and Kai had both become more withdrawn and silent with every day that passed too.

He was pretty worried about that actually, always wondering to himself why they were acting so strange and why they were starting to keep things from him.

Whenever either of them would come back from work or school, they would turn immediately after doing everything that was required of them at the Sanctuary. They remained in their wolven form then for the rest of the night or during the whole weekend.

It actually took Simmons quite some persuading on his own end to bribe Grif into turning into his human form in order to be with him. It was beyond strange and Simmons didn't know what to do in response to this troubling new behavior.

He had just come back from checking up with the telekinetic, Vic, who was actually driving him up the fucking wall. Luckily, he wasn't the only one.

Carolina seemed to think quite the same thing when she first met the annoying as fuck telekinetic…

Now he wandered down to the lower floors to visit Doc for his yearly vaccination. Simmons hoped that O'Malley would shut up for once and let Doc talk.

Doc was a two-face. On the back of his head he had a second face that had its own character and will.

Fortunately, this being wasn't able to control Doc's actual body but he was rather annoying and sometimes troubling to interact with in this particular case nonetheless.

On especially bad days, Doc could only smile apologetically while O'Malley would cuss, curse, and blab about how he would take over the world and become its only leader and other shit.

His plans were even more insane than Sarge's.

It was probably for the best that only Doc was able to control the body they owned and was a pacifist.

Though since O'Malley was so unhinged, none of his plans would work in a thousand years besides.

A two-face, to put it simply, was a genetic mutation that occurred during pregnancy. The only point necessary for a two-face to be born save the genetic mutation itself was that the child must have a form of dissociative identity disorder already during the pregnancy.

The two-faced psyche would then cause a second face to appear at the back of the fetus' head, giving the second person living in the body its own mouth.

Luckily, Doc managed to get O'Malley distracted long enough so that Simmons was able to give him the vaccination and leave without any major issues. Thankfully.

Walking up to Kimball's room, he shortly knocked and walked in.

She was already waiting for him as she had asked for the redhead's help earlier. Another branch of the

Sanctuary had a request concerning a wolven as they had one that had been acting weirdly during the last few days.

Simmons was a well-known expert about wolvens in the Sanctuary network and even outside the Network amongst the Abnormals.

Since he was part of the pack and decided to specialize on wolvens, he had learned a lot of things about wolvens: their dynamics, their unique diseases, and the various ways of treating whatever problem they might be experiencing at a given moment.

Also due to being a member of the pack, he knew how to react to actions made by wolvens when approaching them. He was able by now to put wolvens at ease because other wolvens noticed his pack-stench and knew he was part of a pack, and therefore familiar with pack structures and how to behave around wolvens.

Like when you had to treat an Alpha, you had to be very respectful and wait until the Alpha was giving you his permission.

When you were treating a Beta, you had to treat them equally.

Omegas should be dominated. They only knew one language: dominance. Dominate them and they will follow your lead and your instructions without any beefing or bellyaching.

Upon entering the room, Kimball waved him over to sit beside her. When he sat down on the chair beside the Sanctuary's leader, he could see that she already was in a conference call with the leader of the Mexican branch where the only wolven living at that branch of the Sanctuay was currently behaving strange.

"Hello, Doyle." Simmons greeted, Kimball and the Leader of the Sub-Branch obviously already having talked about everything beforehand.

Doyle was a Mouser.

As the name implied that meant he was a blend of human and mouse. He was able to turn into a mouse just as wolvens turned into wolves and werecats into cats. Mousers were typically rather cowardly in their mannerisms, so it was pretty surprising that this kind of guy had become the leader of one of the Sanctuary branches.

"Doyle, would you mind telling our expert on wolvens what is happening exactly?" Kimball asked in her well-mannered tone.

Simmons' cheeks flushed a little at this praise and at the well-worded title he was addressed with.

"Of course, Ms. Kimball. Mr. Simmons." Doyle greeted the redhead who recently joined the conversation with a slight nod of his head before an awkward silence filled the air.

"So you have a wolven acting strangely?" Simmons finally asked, helping to give the man a starting point once it became apparent that Doyle hadn't been sure of what to say just then.

"Yes, indeed. He is acting quite strangely." Doyle began, though he hesitated a bit instead of elaborating any further.

"Would you mind telling me how the wolven got to the Sanctuary? What gender is this particular? wolven? What is their rank?" Simmons questioned, patiently listening to Doyle's eventual answers once he got his thoughts in order.

"He is an Alpha called Kevin. He was the leader of the local pack here for some years, until one of the younger wolvens who had just come to Mexico took over leadership of the pack in a fierce battle." Doyle was reading from a notebook he had brought with him to the conference call, "He came to us pretty badly off. We were able to save him, even if it was push and go for some time afterwards actually."

Simmons took out his pad, making his own notes on what Doyle was telling him as the other man continued, "He healed fairly well and has stayed with us for the last two years in the security of the

Sanctuary. He even helped with our daily tasks and helped us in finding out about some of the storage areas of the Charon Company."

Simmons nodded, writing down more information.

"What changed then, so suddenly?" Simmons led Doyle into explaining what was now happening with the wolven.

Doyle's voice became thoughtful when he started thinking back on what had happened, "It started around a month ago and has gotten progressively worse since then."

Simmons perked up a bit at that. _This_ definitely sounded _familiar_.

He asked Doyle to continue with a motion of his hand, "He became withdrawn and almost a bit aggressive. He is staying in his wolven form at every possible moment and he is locking himself up. And by locking himself up, I mean it. Quite literally." Doyle heaved another sigh, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Since two weeks ago, he has started locking his door at night. I once walked by and heard strange noises coming from his room. They were akin to growling, grunting and shifting. He often looks faraway as if his mind is somewhere else entirely, which is not how he normally is. I often have the distinct impression that something is forcing him to act in this out of characteristic manner." Doyle explained, shrugging helplessly with his shoulders.

"We checked him over for any parasites that could control him or for any sort of changes in his cranial structure. We even let a telepath check him over and try talking to him mentally, but he won't tell us what is going on. As he has no mate, we cannot tell how he would be acting if he did have one." Doyle concluded his explanations with a shake of his head.

"Not really any differently." Simmons stated with a deep sigh, causing both Doyle and Kimball to startle.

"You know what the problem is, Simmons?" Kimball asked, looking questioningly at the redhead.

He nodded, "Yeah, Grif and Kai are acting the same way. I chalked it up to their mother's passing away as to why they were acting so strangely. But getting information from other places that all wolvens on this continent are actually acting weird, I suppose there must be something else going on." Simmons explained, shortly summing up the odd behavior of the Grif siblings.

"Could it be some kind of tidal moon effect? I mean… the effects of the sun and moon in one together? The same moon causing springtides?" Kimball asked, looking expectantly at the redhead just as Doyle did.

"No, tidal moons aren't that bad for wolvens. They're a bit tougher than normal full moons, but…" Simmons trailed off, snatching his tablet up to look something up on it.

"Fucking shit. We're fucked." Simmons muttered just then, rubbing his hands over his face when he found the reason that explained Grif's, as well as every other wolven's, strange behavior looking up at him from the tablet's surface.

"What is it, Mr. Simmons?" Doyle asked, obviously picking up on his changed behavior along with Kimball.

Simmons looked up from his hands before saying two words, "Blood moon."

Kimball sucked in air through her teeth, while Doyle looked rather puzzled at the brief response, "Blood

moon? You mean the lunar eclipse where the moon turns red?"

Simmons nodded, "Yeah. It also has pretty bad effects on wolvens. I would suggest that you lock the wolven up in the quarantine quarters at least if not in the high security compartment tomorrow from

moonrise until moon dawn."

Doyle's eyes became wider and wider as Simmons continued, looking over to Kimball, "Although they're my pack, I will suggest the same to them right after we have finished our discussion here just to make them feel safe and so that we can remain safe ourselves."

Kimball nodded, informing Carolina to start preparing holding cells for the wolvens. They shouldn't feel as though they were being locked away so it was imperative that they feel comfortable in them, which meant that Carolina would have something to do during the hours left until the eclipse would start.

"What is it about the blood moon that affects wolvens so much?" Doyle asked, obviously having ordered the same to his assistant, who hurried off in the background.

Simmons sighed, "I will send you and the other branches affected by this," he looked over to Kimball and received a nod in response, "The document on the blood moon and its effects on the wolvens later. For now, I'll give you the short version. To put it simply: the redder the moon, the stronger the instincts of the wolven take over. Their logical human mind doesn't have much say during this event, as the instincts are too dominant during this night. Only wolven who are in the 'light,'" Simmons marked the word with apostrophes with his fingers in want of a better word, "Of the blood moon are affected."

He tapped on the right armrest before continuing, "The blood moon is the only night when wolvens actually are able to bite and turn someone. Which is why they are so dangerous during it." He told them, "They are led by their instincts during this night. And the only thing their instincts are telling them is to bite and turn as many people as possible, most of all their mate if they have one and he or she isn't a wolven themselves. The call already starts about a month before the blood moon, which is why they start withdrawing so that they do not hurt someone."

Simmons rubbed his chin before adding, "The blood moon is the reason why horror stories of bloodthirsty wolvens started making their way around. They are not themselves during this time. If you have no bite resistant inhabitants, I suggest not getting too close to them during the whole night. Give him food and water, and leave him until the next morning."

Simmons suppressed a grimace when he thought about Grif being locked away, "They will get better as soon as the eclipse starts to dissolve. As soon as the Earth is out of the sunlight's way completely, they will get pretty clear in their head again. But I suggest you leave them in the quarantine quarters until the moon sets and the sun has risen completely."

Doyle nodded, taking notes and giving them to his assistant when he showed up again.

They shortly talked some words in Spanish before the assistant, a cousin of Lopez's, left again.

"So you are suggesting that we lock him away without any help during the night? That sounds cruel." Doyle remarked, "You are pretty harsh to take so drastic measures! This whole situation could end in the wolvens going crazy sequestered like that! Or in their death!"

"Dexter Grif is the Alpha of the pack here in the Sanctuary in Atlanta and my mate." Simmons bit out between gritted teeth. He felt anger rising in his chest at Doyle's words, "I don't like locking the wolvens away like that anymore than you do, even more-so when one of them is my mate. But it's the only possible way to keep everyone else safe and to keep the wolvens from doing something they might regret later!"

Kimball laid a hand on Simmons' shoulder to calm him down. He breathed in and out deeply to calm himself.

"It is the best solution for everyone we have. Be happy that your wolven doesn't have a mate." Simmons growled out, looking at Doyle with anger in his eyes.

Doyle flinched at the look Simmons gave him.

"Why? Is that a bad thing?" Doyle asked, and Simmons seriously started to wonder if Doyle was just incredibly naïve or plain dumb.

"Because, as I already explained, the first thing wolvens with a mate want to do is to turn their mate if they aren't a wolven. So, in my case, Grif most likely will try to chew through the door to get to me and bite me. Or he would try to beckon me into joining him in the cell." Simmons explained with a slightly unnerved undertone to his voice.

Thinking on it, he didn't know if he was strong enough to get through the night with Grif beckoning him.

And besides, was it really so bad should he get turned?

A wolven specialist being a wolven themselves surely would help.

Simmons shook his head, determined.

There was no time for such idiotic thoughts. He wouldn't let himself getting turned.

"So a wolven separated from his mate who isn't a wolven is the most dangerous thing you could have in your Sanctuary during a blood moon." He explained, his voice a lot softer this time.

"I see. I am sorry to hear that." Doyle muttered apologetically, looking down at his hands in an awkward fashion.

Simmons sighed again, knowing the other man was sincere, "It's okay, we will deal with it." He assured him, "In your case, I would suggest you try to get him to help you with the plan. If he doesn't want to do so, sedate him and then lock him away. But having the wolven help you in this case helps as he wouldn't be trying as much to start a ruckus during the blood moon. Sure, he will be nervous still, but not nearly as bad as if you did have to do everything to him against his own will."

"I understand." Doyle nodded once more, "I thank you very much for your help, Mr. Simmons."

"You're welcome. Please inform me about how it goes with your wolven resident during this time. I am happy for any new information I can get on the matter." Simmons told him.

Doyle smiled, "I will. Please, stay safe."

Simmons nodded shortly to Doyle and Kimball before leaving the office.

He had something to do.

Walking down to the quarantine quarters as their high security quarters were all occupied, he met up with Carolina who was currently in the process of setting up the second room.

He was rather impressed by how thoroughly and caringly she was with setting up the holding cells for the wolvens all the same.

"Is that okay for the wolvens?" Carolina asked with an even split between curious and teasing in her voice.

"For the wolvens, yes." Simmons replied dryly.

"But?" the redhead prompted the young male further when she caught the hidden note in his voice.

"I'll need some kind of earplugs for the night." Simmons informed her with a wry smile.

"Earplugs?" Carolina asked, cocking an eyebrow at his remark.

Simmons' smile became a tad more awkward, "Grif will be trying to coerce me into joining him in the cell to be with him in order to turn me."

Carolina shortly looked at her fellow redhead with wide eyes before schooling her expression back into a teasing smile.

"So you don't want to hear how your mate is trying to get you into his bed in the sweetest ways he is able to muster? Or are you afraid of becoming a wolven?" she asked.

Simmons turned beet red, coughing awkwardly at Carolina's remark, "You know what? Forget about the earplugs. I will lock myself up in my room and stay there the whole night tomorrow. I can't hear him up there anyway." He muttered, walking away from the quarantine holding cells that Carolina was arranging the last details of.

Again, the question of if he wanted to become a wolven or if he wanted to keep away.

The closer the blood moon got, the more Simmons became unsure about his decision to stay in his room.

But he had to! He wouldn't let himself get turned!

Wandering through the hall back to his room, he pondered over the upcoming events. He didn't know how to even begin to approach the subject to Grif and Kai.

Should he grab the bull by the horns? Or try approaching the subject carefully so as to not scare them away?

Maybe Kai or Grif would need some kind of explanation as to why they had to go to the holding cells?

Simmons shook his head with a low laugh. He was such an idiot.

Grif wouldn't give a fuck about how he approached the subject and Kai would understand what he meant as she was way smarter than anyone would give her credit for.

She would understand what he wanted to say and why it was necessary for her to stay in the holding cell during the event.

Grif, on the other hand, could feel betrayed as Simmons was his mate and was the one who brought up this particular subject. On the other hand, he could get pissed if someone else should tell him about the situation instead as that person wouldn't be pack like Simmons was.

So maybe it wouldn't turn out that badly?

Simmons felt slightly hopeful, but stayed on his toes.

Wolvens often could react quiet violently and angrily if they felt like you wanted to take their freedom away. Freedom for roaming like they wanted to do if their Alpha allowed it.

However, Simmons was pack. That was a point in his favor.

He was no wolven. Negative point.

He was not the Alpha of the pack. Another negative point.

But he was the mate of the Alpha of the pack. Another point in his favor.

Simmons sighed heavily when he walked up the stairs to the ground floor leading to his room. He only knew one thing concerning this whole discussion.

This was going to fucking suck major balls.


	39. Chapter 39

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"Grif, no." Simmons repeated again, this time in a more firm and determined manner as he gently freed his hand from the wolven's grasp.

He wasn't angry with the wolven for not telling Simmons what was going on with him.

Obviously every wolven kept this kind of thing to himself. It was no wonder considering what they had to go through during the past several decades. Given that, it was only understandable that they kept something like this from non-wolvens.

However, after Simmons had decided on the grabbing the bull by its horns approach to their current dilemma, Grif had caved in and explained everything to Simmons—even agreeing when the redhead informed him about his plan for the night of the event.

Which was why they now were standing in the quarantine room.

Kai was already in her quarantine room for the night, in her wolven form and sleeping as much as she was able to. The night would become stressful enough as it was to prevent much rest when it started. Simmons actually thought she would put up more of a fight, but she followed his lead and lied down in her room without any protest.

The redhead stayed with her, scratching her behind her ears until she fell asleep on the mattress that had been prepared for her.

The one who was putting up a fight, actually pretty much to Simmons' surprise as he had heard otherwise last night from him when he had agreed to everything, was Grif.

He stood in the room, not even undressed so far and clutching tightly onto Simmons' hand, even after he already had freed it three times from his grasp.

Simmons sighed again.

He knew why Grif was acting like that. His instincts were telling him to do that.

No… scratch that.

His instincts were _forcing_ him to do that.

Simmons was no wolven, so it was only natural that Grif's instincts were telling him that he should turn Simmons.

The redhead, however, had decided against every thought that came up until now, to stay out of the cell during the night. It was better for both of them, although he felt bad for locking Grif up like he was some kind of criminal and leaving him alone on top of that.

He was telling himself over and over again that this was the best solution for the two of them.

Was it the best solution?

Yes, it fucking was!

Grif flopped down on the bed with a huff.

Simmons couldn't say that he heard any real annoyance coming out of the wolven's huff just then. It sounded more… hurt? Alone?

Grif obviously felt hurt and alone because his mate was leaving him so easily when he needed him the most. It was an instinctive thing and his logical mind had not much of a say in his reactions towards his mate.

The redhead had already suspected that Grif's instincts would first take over when it came to his mate as the blood moon got closer.

For the umpteenth time this day, the redhead sighed.

Turning around, he walked over to the wolven and crouched down in front of him, cupping his face in his hands.

Grif immediately grasped onto the hands and held them tightly, enjoying the touch with a low sigh.

"It's just for a night. Tomorrow, as soon as the moon sets and you're clear enough in your head again you can come up to my room, okay?" Simmons assured him.

"Promise?" the wolven asked, his baby blue eyes round and hopeful.

Simmons smiled, thumb ghosting over Grif's cheek in a way that drew a contented hum from his boyfriend.

"Promise. I'm not going to ditch you just because you aren't around for a night." Simmons explained patiently, "We've already been through too much shit to separate now, don't you think?"

Grif contemplated what Simmons just told him, before nodding reluctantly.

He smiled at that, "See? I promise I will stay in my room the whole night, probably working my ass off and you will have to tear me away from my desk in the morning after I fall asleep on my books again."

"You're such a nerd." Grif mumbled, a smile turning the corners of his mouth upwards.

"I know. Now you better get changed and get some sleep like Kai is doing before this thing starts." Simmons carefully bribed the wolven into turning.

Much to Simmons' surprise, the Hawaiian nodded before starting to undress.

Simmons turned around.

Not because of Grif's nakedness, but because of the turning.

It was awful to hear bones snapping, breaking, and relocating. Shifting, extending, and cracking.

He hated the sounds when Grif changed. His imagination of all of the pain the wolven had to go through every time it occurred, even though he was a pureblood, was horrible.

When Grif was done, he gently nudged the redhead's hand to indicate that it was okay for Simmons to turn around once more.

Blinking his eyes open, he turned around to see the wolven standing there. A huge black mutt, looking up at the redhead with hopeful eyes.

Simmons knew what this expression in his eyes meant. It was a silent plea for his mate to stay with the wolven.

"Come on, let's get you into bed." Simmons muttered, lying a hand on the back of the wolven and guiding him gently over to the mattress from Simmons' room.

It smelled like Kai, Grif, and Simmons. A mix which should put the wolven at ease.

Curling up on his mattress, Grif sighed happily when he felt his mate sit down beside him, gently starting to ruffle the fur on his head. Most of Simmons' attention was directed towards the spot right behind his ears. He knew that Grif liked getting scratched there and enjoyed the caressing he got from his mate.

When Simmons was sure that Grif was sleeping soundly, he got up and left the room to go up to his own room.

He guessed he would stick to his word and work his ass off, so as to not think about the wolven being locked up and feeling the withdrawal of his mate as though he were a drug that Grif wasn't able to get anymore.

Walking over to his desk, Simmons opened up a document about wolvens. He was intending to write a book about wolvens and he was pretty well into the work already. It was about a hundred pages long by now.

He would write about three hundred to three hundred and fifty pages before he would check with Kimball about seeing if it could be published.

He had been working for what felt like hours by now, already having written several more chapters of his new book, when he first felt as though he were hearing something.

He stopped typing but when the sound didn't repeat itself, he went back to writing.

…

There, there it was again!

Lifting his head, Simmons again stopped writing. He saved his document and began listening more closely to his surroundings.

Just when he thought it seemed as though nothing would happen once more and he had been imagining things, he heard the sound again.

It was a sad sound.

And Simmons felt like he knew this sound.

But that couldn't be it!

Grif was more than three stories beneath him, with several thick concrete floors between them!

He couldn't hear him up here. That was simply impossible!

He was just making up things. He was suffering from the withdrawal of his mate in a similar way to how Grif was, and therefore he was imagining his howling and beckoning for Simmons to come down.

Simmons groaned, searching for his headphones and putting them on to listen to his favorite music.

Maybe he wouldn't hear the beckoning of his mate if he was listening to his music turned up so loudly that it almost blew his eardrums away.

He was humming away to one of his favorite songs that he hadn't heard for weeks by now as Grif would always complain about this song being too nerdy for his sensitive ears.

It had caused a banter to start up between them again, with Simmons complaining in return about Grif's bad taste of music and how it was only organized noise instead of music like the light classical songs he loved to hear. Those were calming and actually entertaining to listen to.

Grif's choice of music, on the other hand, was only awful and sounded horribly like metal scraping on metal. The cacophony of noises Grif's taste of music consisted of was something that made Simmons' ears want to bleed and the redhead to cry.

Hold on a sec… This sound hadn't been part of the music…

Sitting at his desk with his headphones on, he groaned when he heard the howling again. Seriously…

Was the motherfucker really that loud down there or was Simmons' mind playing tricks on him because he missed his mate?

It _must_ be his mind!

Grif was too safely locked away for his voice to be able to come up here. Even more-so considering that his voice still seemed to have the same volume it had before, even after Simmons put his headphones on.

He turned back to his work, trying to focus on his book.

He managed about one line before he again heard the sound. Simmons groaned, letting his head hang.

The redhead rubbed his temples, checking the clock. It wasn't even half the night yet and Grif was already driving him up the fucking wall!

Breathing deeply, he reread the line and tried to continue writing for his book.

He couldn't even manage another line.

He almost trashed the keyboard when he heard the wolven's howling again. Or what his mind thought was Grif's howling, although he was fucking sure that this was only his mind playing tricks on him.

Fan-fucking-tastic!

Closing his laptop with an audible 'clap,' he decided to lie on his bed and try to sleep. Maybe he wouldn't hear the wolven if he was sleeping soundly.

After about half an hour, he got up again and started to pace around.

He still heard Grif's howling, even though he still was wearing his headphones!

Besides… knowing that he heard the howling, knowing exactly who this howling was desperately calling for, was making him almost go nuts.

The howling made him want to bang his head against something hard until he would drop unconscious to the floor and wouldn't have to hear it anymore.

Or… He could go down to Grif.

But… That wasn't possible.

He was no wolven. He would endanger Grif and himself should he enter the room the wolven was being contained in.

He wouldn't be able to go to Grif unless….

Unless he allowed himself to get bitten and turned for the sake of being with Grif until their very end.

Sitting down on the bed in his room, Simmons stared at the photographs on his sideboard.

They were all from his holidays in Hawaii with the Grif siblings.

There was a picture where all three of them were on the beach, grinning widely into the camera after they had asked a random guy to take a picture of them.

There was a picture a photographer made of Grif and Kai when they were surfing at the beach.

The photographer had seen the wolvens surfing like pros, and had asked them to take photographs as he had been really intrigued by the unique style of the wolvens.

Grif hadn't really cared so long as the photographer wouldn't bother him afterwards and he would get a copy of the pictures.

There was this one picture in particular that Simmons loved. Grif was slightly bent over on the surfboard for a safe stance, his left hand leaving a trail in the water when he dipped it in. He was staring right dead into the camera with his unique cocky smile while the wave broke and formed a tube of water around Grif. Behind him you could see the island of O'ahu.

It simply looked fucking awesome.

There was one of Kai making a jump with her board. The photographer actually caught the last graceful moment of her jump before she ungracefully lost her balance and fell off the board, hitting the water belly first.

She came up again moments later, being immensely proud that the photographer managed to catch her jump, and ignoring the fact that she didn't finish it. She would tell everyone how badass she made the jump fail. Whatever.

Then there was Simmons standing beside a cosplayer who had costumed as a Stormtrooper from Star Wars, as the newest movie of the Star Wars series had been released that evening. Of course they went to see the movie then too!

In the picture, Simmons was beaming with joy and had a pretty apparent case of sunburn.

Then there was a photo of Grif and Simmons standing in front of a little waterfall and the pond underneath it in the middle of the jungle, both smiling happily and standing as close as possible without looking like a couple back then.

Kai had taken the picture. Now looking at them, he had to admit that it was pretty obvious that they were into each other already back then.

He groaned when he heard Grif again.

The calling in his heart to go to Grif got stronger with every minute, with every time he heard the wolven howl. Or at least thought he heard him howling.

Either he would have to chain himself up here on the bed or he would have to go down to Grif and Kai's holding cells to make sure it really was Grif calling for him.

Simmons already feared that he was imagining it and he would find a soundly sleeping Grif should he show up down in the quarantine section.

But going down just to check on him wouldn't be enough, he knew. When he was down there and heard

Grif howling so desperately for him, he wouldn't be able to stay out of the holding cell. He was fucking sure of not being able to stay out of it.

"Fucking peachy." Simmons groaned, rubbing his temples.

That left only two options open. Either he chained and locked himself up here in his room until tomorrow morning, or he would go down and, consequently, get turned into a wolven.

Maybe he would lose his family's unique trait of turning invisible then? Or perhaps it would mix up with his abnormality and create a whole new blend?

He shook his head violently. Why was he even pondering that!?

He wasn't going down. End of story!

When the howling next resounded, Simmons had already begun to waver.

He wanted to go to Grif so desperately. But he knew the consequences.

Which, he suddenly realized, didn't scare him at all anymore strangely enough.

It wasn't the consequences of him becoming a wolven that he feared just then. It was the consequences he would suffer from Grif when he was clear in his head again and realized what had happened.

Simmons knew that Grif would chew him out so fucking bad tomorrow morning when he would get clear in his head and realize that Simmons was beside him, sleeping or whatever, perhaps even in his new wolven form.

He would most likely sport a wound, or a scar. He couldn't tell how fast his wounds would heal in general after getting turned or right after getting bitten.

There would be blood on the floor if he got bitten regardless.

Simmons slapped his hand against his head. Fucking great!

He was more curious than afraid of becoming a wolven himself.

It looked as though his mind and his heart had subconsciously already made the decision for him, and he couldn't back out now. They already seemed to be telling him what he would have to do next.

"Ugh, fucking fine! I'm coming to you, you asshole!" Simmons growled when he heard another howl coming from the basement of the house.

The redhead got up and left his room, heading towards the quarantine floor.

It took him around ten minutes to get down to the quarantine quarters.

During this time, he had gotten confirmation that his mind had been playing tricks on him only by making him believe that he heard the howling in his room.

Concerning the fact that Grif was howling pitifully and sadly, trying to beckon Simmons to come to him? That was actually true.

Entering the area, he could hear Grif howling as loud as fuck.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Carolina asked, slightly pissed when she saw Simmons entering the space.

Her stance and her voice gave it away that she was less than happy to see him there considering the circumstances.

"I'm going to make this fucker over here shut up." Simmons grumbled, standing in front of Grif's cell.

The wolven stopped howling, only to whimper lowly in an attempt to try to coerce Simmons into coming into his cell.

"I take it that you couldn't stay on your own in your room?" Kimball asked, making Simmons almost jump through the roof.

He hadn't noticed her being around too!

Coughing to buy time before he had to answer, he shortly pondered over how he should reply.

"Yeah. I always had the feeling as though I was hearing him up in my room, although that isn't remotely possible." Simmons muttered, his cheeks turning red at the admission.

"Technically it isn't possible." Kimball replied calmly, "But when a bond between mates is strong enough, it is possible that you can hear each other even when it seems like you shouldn't be able to do so."

Simmons looked puzzled at Kimball. How did she know that?

She smiled and turned her laptop to reveal an Indian male smiling broadly upon seeing Simmons.

Right, Simmons had nearly forgotten that the leader of the Indian branch of the Sanctuary was a wolven.

He was online, trying to help out as best as he could during this hard time for several of the other branches. Since India wasn't affected by the blood moon, he was able to help the Sanctuary branches in the vicinity of the blood moon.

It looked as though the man was having a conference with all of the differing branches that had a wolven amongst their inhabitants and who were affected by the blood moon.

"Ah, Mr. Simmons. Hello." He laid his hands together and bowed down.

Simmons mimicked his gesture, before answering, "Rasheed Prathamibithan from the Grif Clan, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine as well." Rasheed replied to close the formalities and explain in detail what Kimball had just told him briefly.

Simmons nodded through the time, listening attentively. He made Grif shut up with a motion of his hand from time to time when his whining got too loud to hear anything.

When he was done, Rasheed again bowed down and bid them his goodbyes, as it was already getting to be morning and he had to cover his other tasks. He also seemed to bid his goodbyes to the other branches in the same instance.

Simmons, Kimball, and Carolina said their goodbyes as well, turning back to the wolvens in the holding cells when the laptop screen turned dark.

Kai now also appeared at the window of her cell too to see Simmons.

She wasn't being a whiny little bitch like her brother was currently, instead wagging her tail happily to show that she was more than delighted to see her pack being reunited again down here after Simmons had left hours ago.

"You aren't really going to do what I think you are, are you?" Carolina growled out darkly.

She had her arms crossed and stared at her fellow redhead with a dark glare.

Simmons didn't reply but returned to Grif's holding cell and pressed his flat hand against the glass. Grif immediately pressed against the spot, as though he was trying to squish the glass between them to feel his mate again.

"I fear that he wants to do exactly what you are thinking he is planning to do, Carolina."

It was Kimball's voice that answered for the male redhead when he didn't reply but only stared back blankly at Grif in the holding cell.

"That's fucking insane." Carolina replied, her voice raising in volume and bite as she started to walk towards the redhead.

"Carolina." Kimball's stern and commanding voice made her stop dead in her tracks. However, she didn't stop glaring at him.

The leader of the Sanctuary continued, "That isn't up to you to decide, don't you agree? They are mates, after all. And if their bond is already so strong that Simmons can hear Grif up in his room when Grif was with us this whole time and it's technically impossible to hear him in his room, it is only natural that they want to bring their relationship to a new level."

"It is still insane! He could die!" Carolina insisted, taking another step towards the redhead but stopping when she heard Grif growling darkly—the threat clear even though Carolina didn't understand the wolven-language.

"I am still here." Simmons stated dryly, adding, "It's my decision, Carolina. Please accept that."

Simmons had gotten up but didn't turn around to look at the redhead standing behind him.

She crossed her arms, "Fine, but I am not going to buy you new clothes when you rip them all apart by turning uncontrollably."

Simmons nodded, waiting for the two females to do the same before he focused back on Grif, "Grif. Go back to your bed, will you?"

The wolven's ears perked up and his tail started to wag, although he growled dangerously. Although he wanted nothing more than to be close to his mate, he didn't want the redhead to be in the cell.

Whatever small portion of logical sense he had still was on alarm on account of Simmons' plans.

Simmons, however, didn't care about Grif's threat detection just then, punching in the code to open the door.

When the door snapped open and Simmons entered the cell, he could see a change in Grif's behavior, as well as in Carolina's and Kimball's.

Grif had his tail between his legs, with his ears pressed flat against his head. He was growling lowly.

Kimball and Carolina both tensed up.

While Carolina was absolutely on high alert about what Simmons was doing and wanted to drag him back out by his ear, Kimball was more or less calm and, most of all, curious. Obviously she was okay with his decision, but she was taking the opportunity to bring her laptop in position to film everything which would happen during the next few hours.

Simmons smiled at the realization that he was going to be filmed for his own continued research for his specialization.

Simmons closed the door to the cell, again turning to Kimball and Carolina, "Whatever happens in here, no matter what… stay out of here. Don't come in. I have it covered."

The two females didn't say a word and nodded in agreement, but Simmons could see the concern in their eyes.

Slowly, Simmons walked towards Grif who was starting to crouch down, still growling and threatening Simmons to stay the fuck away of him.

The redhead smiled, crouching down on the floor, "Come here, boy."

Low on the floor, he waited for the wolven to come.

When he didn't come, Simmons frowned, "It's okay, Grif." He reassured him gently, "Seriously. I am fine with whatever happens."

The wolven growled, not moving an inch away from the corner he was crowded up into. He even pressed further back into the corner.

Simmons sighed, getting up from his spot on the floor and walking over to the wolven. The closer he got, the louder Grif's growling became. He even started to bare his fangs to threat Simmons to stay away from him.

"Oh… shut the fuck up, asshole." Simmons exploded when he was fed up with Grif's growling.

Seriously, first he was beckoning him all night to come down here, and when he was finally down here… Grif was acting all bitchy!?

He should make up his fucking mind already!

Grif shut up immediately, looking at the redhead with an odd mix of longing, fear, anger, and desire in his eyes, but he still didn't move from his spot in the corner beside the mattress.

When Simmons reached the wolven, he crouched down in front of him and gently embraced Grif.

He could feel Grif going all rigid when he felt the redhead's arms circle around his neck. Grif didn't move, his body as stiff as a board.

Simmons huffed, "Seriously, you're as stiff as a board. You're acting as awkward as I would normally."

A low huff came from the wolven.

At least there was some familiar response to Simmons' teasing.

They stayed like that for a long while, Simmons feeling the wolven slowly relax. But there was some tension still in his body.

Simmons could give a pretty good guess as to what the reason for that was.

He felt the wolven opening his mouth and closing it again, as though he was desperately fighting with himself to not bite his mate.

"Hey, Grif." Simmons started, gently muttering, "It's okay. Everything is okay. I'm fine."

Simmons kept on talking to the wolven in this way. He closed his eyes and began pressing the wolven's head down towards his body.

At first, Grif was trying to pull away from Simmons' lead but the redhead didn't leave him any other option by grabbing onto one of his sensitive ears and pulling at it when he tried to squirm away.

"Seriously, it's okay. We're okay." Simmons muttered once more, exhaling deeply when he felt Grif's warm breath sweeping over his right forearm.

Grif's breath was ragged, like he was on the verge of a panic attack. Or like he was holding back from breathing in Simmons' scent too deep in order to not lose control.

"It's fine, Grif. Everything's going to be okay. You are my mate and I am yours. No matter what." Simmons kept on with his rambling.

He couldn't say if it was because of what he said or Grif breathing in Simmons' overwhelming scent after almost suffocating, but right at that moment, Grif's instincts took over or he simply gave up in fighting them altogether.

Simmons felt the breath getting warmer when Grif's face got closer to his arm, heard the sound of the wolven's mouth opening, and, moments later, felt how his mate's fangs sunk deeply into the flesh of his arm.


	40. Chapter 40

When Simmons came to later on, his _everything_ fucking hurt.

The feeling was oddly familiar as this wasn't the first time that he had woken up with his whole body hurting. At least the fact that he wasn't in the infirmary was rather soothing for his mental state even with the pain he was in.

A sharp pain shot through his body as he tried moving, making every single bone in his body hurt and ache with the effort.

He whined when the pain felt like it was becoming too much.

Blinking open his eyes, he managed to lift his head and looked around blearily.

The redhead felt like all of his senses were overburdened with the information he received. All the different smells, sounds, and things he was seeing just then, all of the stuff he was feeling…

With a groan, he closed his eyes again to let his body wake up completely.

Minutes later, he started another attempt — lifting his eyes and trying to stand up.

He felt like he had just been born and was standing upright on shaky legs when he finally managed to get on all of his four legs.

…Or at least on three of them, as his right front leg still hurt from yesterday where Grif had bitten him.

His field of vision was much lower than usual, indicating that he must be in his wolven form.

It wasn't necessarily surprising that he was a wolven.

He knew what he did yesterday and he knew what that would cause. It was more that the change of his body was still surprising.

The fact that he had a different field of vision; that he was able to see, smell, and hear better; and that his whole body felt different and received information about his surroundings differently were all things that he would definitely have to get used to during the next few days before he would be able to go to places where more people would be gathering.

Lifting his head, he looked directly into the eyes of his mate.

Alpha was sitting on the mattress in his other form. His fur was strange. His legs were black with white stripes on the sides of his legs. The fur on his chest was orange.

His arms and face were without any fur.

His human self told him that those were clothes, not fur.

Kiran, his wolven mind, decided to ignore him.

Kiran wouldn't have time to argue with his human part, Richard Simmons, as Alpha, Rokash, got up and regarded him with anger shining in his eyes.

"Are you fucking crazy!? Do you have some kind of fucking insane death wish!?" Alpha yelled, staring him down.

Kiran limped backwards with a whine, ears pressed back on his head and his tail between his legs.

"You seriously are crazy! Didn't you even _think_ that you could have _maybe_ died with that the stunt you pulled!?"

Kiran's rear hit the wall.

He had lifted his right front leg to unburden it as it still hurt like a bitch. Maybe it would take some time longer for the injuries to heal as he had just become a wolven and his wolven mind, Kiran, had only just awoken?

The wolven decided to let his human mind ponder over this question while he rather focused his mind on Alpha who was standing in front of him with his arms crossed. He had fully risen to a standing position and he was clearly showing Kiran that he was the dominant party here.

He whined lowly as he got even lower to the ground, his ribcage already touching the floor. The only thing left to do now was to lie on the ground as he couldn't go down any lower.

Alpha didn't seem to be done, however, as he was still fuming while standing in front of Kiran.

The wolven whined, trying to apologize to Alpha for his mindless behavior. His eyes, amber eyes with a slight hint of green, were huge and filled with fear as everything with this situation was still so new and overwhelming to him.

"This could have gotten you killed! How do you think I would have _felt_ if you didn't wake up!? What were you _thinking_ anyways when you did this!?"

Another low whine escaped his throat as he tried to calm his furious mate down, but this only seemed to fuel his rage further.

"Oh, stop being such a whiny bitch! _You_ are so fucking smart, so stop trying to talk yourself out of it, asshole!" the wolven fumed, glaring the other wolven with the dark brown fur with maroon undertones down.

"Why don't _you_ stop being such an asshole!" a new voice came from the door.

Neither of them realized that the door had opened and someone had entered.

It was Kaikaina, entering the room and staring Alpha down, "He only did this for _you_ , in case you hadn't noticed!"

"Oh, so now you think I wished to endanger his life by making him a wolven!?" Grif snapped, turning his focus to Kai.

Unlike Kiran, Kai, or Zajora as that was what her wolven form was called, stood her ground. She didn't back down when Grif glared at her.

"In case you have forgotten, oh dear brother of mine, _you_ were howling all night like you were going to _die_ in the next second until Simmons fucking showed up!" She stared back at him in the same way that her brother glared at her, "He did this because he loves you and wants to be with you! And the only thing you're doing is yelling at him for that? What kind of an asshole of a mate are you anyways!?"

"I never asked for this! I never wanted to endanger his life to turn him! He should have just ignored me!" Alpha yelled, though Kai did not really react at all to the loud voice booming from Alpha.

Instead, she turned to Kiran, "You better get your paw checked. Kimball is waiting for you."

The silent _'Get the fuck out of here'_ in her tone was pretty obvious, so Kiran hauled ass to get out of the room.

All the while he looked over to Alpha.

He still had his arms crossed and looked extremely angry. The only thing he said to him was a snapped "Go!"

Kiran flinched and started limping to the exit of the room. He kept his ears down, with his tail between his legs and his body close to the ground.

Rokash didn't say much more after his command, only staring back with so much anger in his eyes that it made his blue eyes seem as cold as ice.

When he was outside of the room, Kiran limped over to the infirmary.

As he walked away, he could hear Zajora and Rokash arguing loudly but he couldn't understand what they were saying. Not because of his hearing, but because the cell dulled their voices to the point where it was impossible to understand anything.

The only thing he knew was that he obviously had done something wrong when he came to Alpha last night and allowed him to bite his human part, Simmons, to turn him into Kiran.

With a hanging head, the wolven entered the infirmary. He saw Kimball and Grey waiting for him beside a stretcher.

He didn't react much to them, only limping over to the stretcher and hopping onto it with an ungraceful jump.

Kiran bit back his whines when they treated the wound on his leg.

"Okay, Simmons." Kimball started when they were done cleaning the wound and examining it, "The wound is healing up already. Grif tried not to bite too hard, but he broke your lower arm bones nonetheless. They are healing properly, but due to you only getting turned recently, I guess the healing takes a little bit longer. Please be careful for the next few hours and I am sure there will be no problem."

Kiran nodded, questioning inwardly why she was talking to his human side.

His human side, however, argued that she didn't know that with the wolven a second mind manifested.

It was not as bad as someone who had something like dissociative identity disorder, as you were still quite the same. But wolven obviously seemed to have two minds akin to the two sides of a medal that had to work in harmony in order to get along with the individual requirements that both human and wolven needed to meet.

Carefully hopping down from the stretcher, he stood there—a bit indecisive.

Alpha had been so angry with him. He had even told him to go.

His human side argued that he had said that in order to make him leave to get looked over. But his wolven side didn't know if Rokash really only meant that he should go to be checked over or that he instead had meant that he should leave for good.

Kimball seemed to notice his inner fight, crouching down beside the wolven, "You don't know what to take of Grif's reaction to this, do you?"

The wolven looked up and nodded. Again, he looked down to the ground. He hadn't changed his body language since he had left. He still had his ears down, his tail between his legs, and he was keeping his body low.

He felt like he would offend Alpha merely by walking normally.

"Don't you want to go to your room then? Until Kai and Grif have sorted everything out?" Her tone was gentle and understanding that Simmons obviously was troubled by the fact that Grif was so angry.

The wolven shortly pondered over Kimball's request before shaking his head.

Maybe it wasn't that bad to follow his human side's input for the first time actually, as his reasoning was pretty logical.

Limping out of the room, he returned to the quarantine room to see Zajora and Rokash still arguing loudly with each other.

Kimball came into the room, saying something about sending a video to Simmons.

Kiran nodded absentmindedly, still focused on his arguing pack. His human part, however was quite excited about this information.

Kiran sat beside the desk where Kimball sat, letting his head hang.

He already dreaded the discussion he would have to have with Alpha.

Zajora seemed to be cool with him being a wolven. Rokash, however, had looked rather pissed when he had woken up.

Kiran sighed.

He was of the same opinion as Simmons.

He would have to wait for Alpha to finish his argument and decide his fate.

He had the strength to preclude him from the pack. To expel him as Alpha's mate.

Kiran already felt bad and as though he wanted to never eat again—as if he would die should Alpha decide to expel him from his pack and take away his love.

Biting back a blend between a whine and a sigh, the newest wolven-member of the pack decided to wait it out until the yelling came to a stop. Maybe it wasn't that bad and Alpha would only chew him out instead of throwing him out of the pack?

Kiran knew he would have to face the consequences. Simmons already had known it when he had entered the cell that Alpha had been in yesterday.

The door burst open suddenly with Zajora skipping out shouting something into the cell before heading for the exit. Kiran suspected that she was going to her room because Rokash was annoying the fuck out of her. Rokash's cry of her name confirmed his suspicions.

Which meant that Alpha was now going to have the talk with him. Kiran didn't dare to lift his gaze from the floor when he heard Alpha coming over to him.

"Follow me, Simmons." He ordered with forced calm in his voice.

Kiran knew that his anger was boiling underneath the seemingly calm surface still.

Without any other word, Alpha turned around and left for the exit.

Kiran hurried to follow him, although he cautiously made sure that he kept at least two feet between him and Alpha, staying behind Rokash.

When they reached Kiran's room, Alpha opened the door and ordered the wolven to enter.

He did as ordered, although he couldn't suppress a whine when Alpha told him to stay there and left the room again, pulling the door almost shut. Now only someone coming from outside could open the door by pushing it open.

Standing in the room, he waited for the next events to take place, whatever they might mean for his future.

It took some moments, but eventually the door opened again and a huge black wolven entered the room.

Kiran immediately began wagging his tail, padding over to Alpha to greet him by licking his nose and showing his affection for his mate and Alpha.

What Kiran didn't suspect was Rokash lifting his head before growling dangerously, threatening him to stand down.

The Omega did immediately as questioned, limping backwards with a low whine with his ears again back on his skull and tail between his legs.

He kept his body down on purpose, showing clearly that he was being submissive towards his Alpha and mate.

Rokash, however, still was keeping his dominant posture as he eyed the newest member of his clan.

When he slowly got closer, Kiran didn't back down but went as low as he could without lying down completely.

He waited anxiously for Alpha to decide what he would do next with him.

When he had his head on the same level as Kiran, he suddenly shot around and bit down on his neck without punctuating his skin. He was just snatching the skin in his neck.

Kiran whined loudly, going down on his belly when Alpha shook his head with Kiran's skin still in his mouth.

He let go of that part of the neck, growling dangerously.

Kiran knew that Rokash was chewing him out right now, just in wolven terms. He already had done it previously in human form.

The wolven whined lowly in answer to the growl, trying to say _'I'm sorry!_ ' in the wolven language.

Whirling around, Alpha bit Kiran's snout and made him now seriously whine and try to squirm out of Alpha's vicinity.

It was okay! He got what he wanted to tell him!

He wouldn't do something so idiotic again! He would be careful!

He wouldn't force his Alpha to do something like that ever again!

Alpha let go of his snout. He could feel blood trickle over the fur on his snout.

Licking it away, he tried to keep the blood from falling onto the ground.

He knew that he had disappointed his Alpha. He had acted selfishly.

But hadn't Alpha beckoned him all the time to come down?

Now he felt anger flare up, growling when he felt the annoyance taking over that his human side often felt.

Rokash again whirled around, staring him down.

Kiran still kept himself low, but he growled now before starting to bark, making his point clear as to why he had done that and telling Alpha where he could shove it.

He might be wolven now too, but he wouldn't act all Omega-like.

He wouldn't allow Alpha to dominate him.

He would still talk back when Rokash was behaving like an idiot or saying dumb shit.

A growl emitted from Alpha, making it clear that he wouldn't accept such behavior from the Omega but he listened nonetheless.

Kiran knew that Alpha tended to be all bark but no bite, but he was still careful not to push his luck.

When Kiran was done, he stood there like Zajora had earlier—making it clear that he would stand his ground.

Rokash was still growling dangerously, but didn't do much besides that.

Somehow, Kiran had the strange notion that Alpha was pondering what he had just said.

It was deadly silent in the room for several minutes with both wolvens staring at each other, thinking and sizing each other up.

That was until Rokash suddenly sighed, a rather humanly reaction for a wolven, before walking over to his mate.

Kiran was tense and anxious, waiting for Alpha's next reaction. He suspected him to do a lot.

Like biting him again in order to punish him for his disrespectful behavior. Such as chewing him out again for something, or just walking away from him entirely.

What he didn't expect was that Alpha would stop in front of him and start licking the bite marks on Kiran's nose that had already started healing.

At first he was totally flabbergasted, but when he started to understand what was going on, he started wagging his tail—whining lowly from happiness now that Alpha seemed to accept him as member of the pack and as his mate despite what he had done.

Sometime later on, when the injuries had healed and his leg was doing better, Alpha walked over to the mattress lying on the ground beside the bed.

Carolina must have brought it up when Kiran had been getting treated by the crazy doctor.

He yawned heartily, looking over at Kiran who still was standing in the middle of the room.

He hadn't changed his body language much since waking up, but he felt relaxed. Alpha was okay with him and he seemed to have accepted his apologies.

His body language now only showed submission, making it clear that he was submissive towards Rokash.

Said Alpha mumbled, making Kiran's ears peek upwards.

Carefully, watching every movement of Alpha carefully, he slowly inched closer to Rokash and followed his demand.

When he was beside Alpha, the black wolven moved a little bit so Kiran could lay down beside him.

Carefully, the reddish mutt laid down beside Alpha, still watching out carefully for his leg as it still hurt a bit.

He jumped a bit when he felt Rokash's nose in his fur, he soon relaxed when he realized that Alpha was only trying to make him snuggle close.

Carefully leaning into the touch, he sighed contentedly when he felt the weight of Rokash's head on his neck while Kiran laid his on Alpha's front paws.

Rokash yawned again before both settled in to sleep.

Kiran was tired. Given everything that had happened with turning into a wolven and the arguing, he felt drained now—tired and worn out.

So sleeping together just then sounded like the best idea his Alpha, his Rokash, had ever had.


	41. Chapter 41

When Grif woke up, he felt strange.

Strange in the way that he didn't really know how to describe how he was feeling.

It was as though some kind of strange urge had finally been satisfied. He felt utterly relaxed and happy at that moment, although he felt beaten and exhausted at the same time.

This feeling was so peculiar to him that it forced him to open his eyes, although it was still early in the morning.

He heard people talking and walking around outside.

That must be Carolina and Kimball who were watching over them.

Wait… why were they watching over him again?

His brain started booting up more and more, as he slowly started to realize what had happened last night.

Right, last night was the blood moon.

Simmons had arranged to get him and Kai down here so that they would be safe from doing something dumb during the lunar event.

However, as his instincts forced him to do, he had tried to beckon and sweet talk Simmons down to him.

Fucking hell, they _were_ mates after all!

It was only natural for his wolven side to want to have his mate around!

Simmons, however, being an idiotic fuck had come down and allowed Grif to bite him despite all those preventative measure he had set up before. To turn him.

Grif jumped up as though he had been hit by an electrical jolt.

 _Simmons!_

The Alpha was immediately on his paws, standing upright and searching for his mate.

Simmons had to be around there somewhere. Either he had been brought out or he was still in the cell. Grif was either going to find him or he would get the information out of Carolina or Kimball about Simmons' whereabouts.

Luckily, he didn't need to search for long.

He only had to turn around to see a mutt with dark reddish brown fur with him.

Grif immediately knew who this was.

 _Simmons!_

Or… no… his instincts told him that this _wasn't_ Simmons.

His name was Kiran, just as Grif's wolven name was Rokash.

He was worried, seeing that Kiran still was lying on the side.

Rokash knew that he had been lying like that ever since he turned.

Trudging over to the mutt, he gently nudged him with his snout.

He repeated this action again and again until he heard a whine coming from the other wolven. It was breathy though, as if the wolven was in pain.

However, no matter how painful it sounded…upon receiving this answer, Rokash turned back around and padded over to the mattress.

Kiran had only himself to blame for this turn of events.

Lying down, he decided to turn human as he would have to have a serious chat with Kiran when he was awake again.

Turning human from his wolven form or vice versa wasn't really a pleasant experience for him, but he had to be in his human form when Kiran woke up.

When the last bone, his nose, snapped back into place where it belonged on his human form, he got up with a groan. He always felt exhausted after turning. The pain consumed more energy than any nap could restore.

Walking over to the pile of clothes beside the mattress, he snatched his clothes up and got dressed.

After Kiran had been bitten, he had been smart enough to at least slip out of the clothes he still could use, like his jeans and shirt and shit, and put them aside before the process of his first turning started to take place.

Lying down on the mattress, he closed his eyes and decided to doze until Kiran finally woke up.

He needed the energy afterwards to talk with Kiran so it was better that he should restore some of it now.

Kiran wouldn't wake up for some time, so he could doze off for a while without really falling asleep. He would get up as soon as he heard Kiran waking up.

He didn't want the redhead to get away by falling asleep himself and letting the recently turned wolven slip away with no repercussion for what he did.

Kiran started whining and moving some hours later, alerting Grif out of his drowsiness. He sat up and crossed his arms, anger flaring up in his chest when he saw the wolven looking up with a slightly confused expression.

Grif couldn't tell how it must feel when you were changed into a wolven and were not born as one. He had slight sympathy for the obvious discomfort the other was in, although he couldn't tell if it was because they had gotten turned so quickly or because he was just Simmons.

Okay, that was mean, but Simmons sometimes was pretty hard to read. Even for him.

He exhaled inwardly, shoving away the thoughts in his mind before he focused on the problem at hand.

He could see that Kiran was finding his way around in his new wolven form, although he still was standing on wobbly legs. His legs must hurt still as he was limping.

Although Grif felt bad about that, it only fueled his anger further.

He got up from his sitting position, making it clear simply by his appearance that he was the one in charge here as he stared the redhead down.

He could see that Kiran reacted to him the way a lower ranked member of the pack should. His tail was between his legs, and his ears were flat on his head with his posture low.

That would serve him right.

"Are you fucking crazy!? Do you have some kind of fucking insane death wish!?" Grif started yelling, staring him down with anger flaring up in his blue eyes.

Grif was well aware of how he must look to Kiran, but this was exactly what he was intending to come across. Kiran should realize who was talking to him. He was his boss and not just some random wolven.

Kiran limped backwards with a whine, ears pressed back on his head and his tail between his legs.

"You seriously are crazy! Didn't you even think that you could have maybe died with that the stunt you pulled!?" Grif felt his anger rise even stronger when he saw the submissive behavior of Kiran.

Normally, he would be satisfied as a wolven with the display, but this time he felt angry on account of it.

Simmons usually talked back to everything he said. Why wouldn't Kiran do that too!?

Okay, he knew that the characters of human and wolven for a changed individual often differed greatly, but seeing it in Simmons' case made him fucking angry.

He was so used to Simmons back talking that he was getting even angrier that Simmons' wolven self, Kiran, didn't do it.

Kiran's rear hit the wall, and Grif followed suit.

Kiran had lifted his right front leg to unburden it as it still seemed to hurt like a bitch. Grif suspected it would take some time longer for the injuries to heal as he had just become a wolven.

Kiran again whined lowly as he got even lower to the ground, his ribcage already touching the floor. The only thing left to do now was to lie on the ground as he couldn't go down any lower.

Grif wasn't done though. He was still fuming while standing in front of Kiran. This fucker was going to get a piece of mind from him.

The young wolven whined, trying to apologize to Grif for his mindless behavior.

His eyes, amber eyes with a slight hint of green, were huge and filled with fear. Of course the Hawaiian realized he was seeing this kind of reaction from Kiran, but he didn't care right that moment. He was so angry with the asshole almost lying on the ground in front of him.

"This could have gotten you killed! How do you think I would have felt if you didn't wake up!? What were you thinking anyways when you did this!?" Grif yelled angrily, taking another step towards the wolven.

His demand was answered by his mate with another whine.

Which only fueled Grif's rage further.

"Oh, stop being such a whiny bitch! You are so fucking smart, so stop trying to talk yourself out of it, asshole!" Grif fumed, glaring the other wolven with the dark brown fur with maroon undertones down.

"Why don't you stop being such an asshole!" a new voice came from the door.

Neither of them realized that the door had opened and someone had entered.

Grif's head shot up, zooming in on the new arrival in the room. His anger was still very palpable, although his sister seemed unbothered by it.

Kaikaina entered the room and stared right back at her older brother, "He only did this for you, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"Oh, so now you think I wished to endanger his life by making him a wolven!?" Grif snapped, turning his focus to Kai while extending his arms to impress her.

She only gave him a cocked eyebrow in response.

"In case you have forgotten, oh dear brother of mine, you were howling all night like you were going to die in the next second until Simmons fucking showed up!" She stared back at him in the same way that Grif glared at her, "He did this because he loves you and wants to be with you! And the only thing you're doing is yelling at him for that? What kind of an asshole of a mate are you anyways!?"

"I never asked for this! I never wanted to endanger his life to turn him! He should have just ignored me!" Grif yelled again, though Kai did not really react at all to the loud voice booming from Grif like Kiran did.

Instead of answering to Grif's outburst, she turned to Kiran, "You better get your paw checked. Kimball is waiting for you."

The silent _'Get the fuck out of here'_ in her tone was pretty obvious, even to Grif.

No wonder the wolven hauled ass to get out of the room as fast as possible.

All the while he looked over to Grif, like any other submissive Omega would do. The Hawaiian Alpha got even angrier.

He still had his arms crossed and looked extremely angry. The only thing he said to him was a snapped "Go!"

Simmons scrambled and ran out of the room as fast as possible.

When Kiran was gone, Grif turned back around to his sister and again started to glare her down. She didn't even react to the vivid glare from her brother. Grif knew that she was used to his outbursts and his character, so she wouldn't really react at all anxious now to this outburst here.

She crossed her arms too, matching his stare with her own.

They were now having a silent staring match. There wouldn't be a winner though, both knew that. It was just some interlude to another argument they would soon have.

Kai sighed, uncrossing her arms. She knew as well as Grif that she would have lost the battle anyway, if it only came down to their pack status as wolven. She still stared at Grif with annoyance in her eyes.

"You really can act like a total cockbite, you know that?" Kai asked, almost casually.

Grif startled a bit at the casualty of her question, but he wouldn't react on it. He knew his sister, and this was her way to try to defuse the situation.

It didn't work immediately however. It fueled Grif's rage more than it calmed him down.

"So?" he replied, knowing exactly that he was sounding like a defiant child. He didn't care at this point.

"Now you're being an idiot," Kai replied, ignoring Grif's bristling and adding, "However, you really should be more worried and happy in this situation. Not many humans would allow their wolven mates to turn them voluntarily. And you're behaving like the biggest dick on Earth because Simmons gave you the biggest gift you could have ever received?" she asked, waiting for Grif to process the information and answer.

"And you both never thought about this whole stunt being potentially lethal!?" Grif replied, not yelling anymore though his voice was still raised.

"It can be lethal, but that is something anything in life has the chance of being!" Kai retorted, rubbing her forehead. "Seriously Dex…" she sighed.

"Yes, he could have died," with a motion of her hand she made Grif shut up, "But he could also have died when he had gotten burned. He could have died when he came here to the Sanctuary. He could have died during the raid instead of Mom. He could die tomorrow by falling out of his bed. See?" she explained, observing Grif with attention in her eyes.

She was waiting for his reaction to assess how he had taken her explanation.

For a long time it was silent in the room, Grif pondering about what Kai had just told him. Her explanation was pretty logical, even more surprising considering that it was from his sister who wasn't really the brightest bulb of the chandelier.

And Grif couldn't deny that Simmons' action was the biggest display of trust that he could have ever shown Grif.

Letting the wolven bite him to turn him, trusting him completely with what the wolven would do and trusting that he wouldn't bite the redhead to death.

After another staring match, Grif closed his eyes. He breathed in and out deeply before opening his eyes again.

"Okay, I get what you are trying to tell me." the Hawaiian muttered as a reply to his sister's explanation. He could see the girl's facial features light up, "Although he still will get chewed out by me afterwards when I'm a wolven." the young male in the holding cell added.

Kai's grin got a bit awkward, "I think that's fair though just don't go too hard on him. He will have enough of a hard time during the next couple of days." She responded to her brother's statement before turning around and skipping out of the cell.

"Just be gentle. You know how first turnings are." She winked and was out of the cell the very next moment.

Grif shouted "Kai!" at that, his voice a blend of embarrassment and anger towards her—though the call was unheard by its intended receiver. She was already out of the quarantine section and on her way up to the living quarters.

Grif sighed, walking out of the room and staring at Kiran with annoyance in his eyes. He still was angry with his mate, although not nearly as much anymore as he previously had been.

"Follow me, Simmons." Grif decided to call him by his human name, rather than calling him by his wolven name and making dozens of questions pop up from all of the non-wolvens around them.

Without another word, he led the way up to their room and made the wolven wait there.

He left the room again, walking over to this room to get rid of his clothes. He sometimes was really happy that he was able to keep his room, despite not really living in it anymore.

He undressed and started to turn.

It always was awfully painful and horrible to turn, even more considering that he just had turned and that the blood moon still was taking its toll on the Alpha.

It was only understandable that it was taking Grif longer than usual to turn completely.

He wanted nothing more than to lie down and nap, preferably together with his mate.

But first, he would have to settle something before he would be able to sleep.

Opening the door with his teeth, he left the room, closing it behind him. He didn't need someone to go looking through his shit when he wasn't around. An open door was like an invitation for some of the Sanctuary inhabitants.

However, walking over to Simmons, he pushed open the door with his body weight, before shutting it by leaning against it and using his weight to make it move.

Kiran immediately began wagging his tail. He still was standing in the place Rokash had left him in previously.

Again, the Alpha felt anger rise in his chest but he pushed it down when he saw the Omega padding over to him to greet him by licking his nose and showing his affection for his mate and Alpha.

Rokash lifted his head before growling dangerously, threatening Kiran to stand down.

The Omega did immediately as questioned, limping backwards with a low whine with his ears again back on his skull and his tail between his legs.

He kept his body down on purpose, showing Rokash clearly that he was being submissive towards his Alpha and mate.

Rokash, however, still was keeping his dominant posture as he eyed the newest member of his clan.

Okay, maybe not as new as you could be to a pack, but Simmons' wolven side was new to the pack and he would show him how this pack here worked.

That was just something you did with every new member, no matter if you already were technically a member or not. Take it as some kind of welcome ritual for every new wolven member.

Besides that, he had to settle a score with Kiran.

When he slowly got closer, Kiran didn't back down but went as low as he could without lying down completely.

 _Already getting cheeky huh?_ Grif thought, Rokash making him shut up with a harsh growl while he eyed the other wolven attentively.

He walked up to Kiran, and kept on walking as though he would pass by the wolven.

When he had his head on the same level as Kiran's, he suddenly shot around and bit down on his neck without punctuating his skin. He was just snatching the skin in his neck.

Kiran whined loudly, going down on his belly when the Alpha shook his head with Kiran's skin still in his mouth. Grif definitely would settle this fucking score with the redhead for his fucking selfish behavior!

He already did it in human terms. And he would do it now in wolven terms!

He let go of that part of the neck again, growling dangerously. He was angry and felt betrayed since Simmons did something like that without discussing it with him when he still was sane.

 _However, what he would he have said?_ Grif asked in the back of Rokash's head, amusement coloring his thoughts.

He would have said no anyways, so Simmons would have done it either way no matter if Grif or Rokash agreed to it or not. Rokash growled again to make the human shut up.

Grif flipped him off, telling him where he could shove it.

Kiran whined lowly in answer to the growl, trying to say _'I'm sorry!'_ in the wolven language.

Whirling around, the Alpha bit Kiran's snout and made him now seriously whine and try to squirm out of the Alpha's vicinity.

Grif already had accepted his apology, but he would have to make an example of Kiran just to stop him from any other idiotic decisions he could potentially make.

Grif let go of his snout. He felt blood trickle over the fur on his snout.

His instincts told him to walk over to his mate and lick the blood away in order to make his mate feel better, but his mate was the reason he was angry and he would not give in to this reaction just to make his point clear.

Kiran, however, tried to lick it away and tried to keep the blood from falling onto the ground.

 _A nerd as always, huh?_

Rokash snorted, agreeing to Grif's statement.

Walking away, he actually wanted to lie down and crash for some hours when something made him whirl around.

He heard Kiran growling.

This Omega was fucking growling at him!

Rokash stared him down, showing clearly that he was the dominant party here.

Kiran still kept himself low, but he growled now before starting to bark as he made his point clear as to why he had done what he had and was telling the Alpha where he could shove it.

A growl emitted from Grif, making it clear that he wouldn't accept such behavior from the Omega but he listened nonetheless.

This was something he hadn't thought would occur when Kiran emerged, as Omegas used to be submissive. But Simmons' nerdy behavior and his back talking seemed to be such a dominant part of his character however that it also manifested in Kiran's character.

Rokash growled every now and then, making it clear that he still was the Alpha here.

Kiran, however, seemed to accept him as an Alpha, but still wouldn't accept all the things he did, said, or decided without telling him his honest opinion about them.

Hell, as far as Rokash could asses of Kiran's character, he would even tell him where he could shove it.

A strange kind of fondness filled his heart and made Grif smile. Fucking nerd, fucking idiot, and his fucking mate.

This fondness turned into pride when Kiran was done and indeed told Rokash where he could shove his idiotic anger and that he should get back to his usual laid back self instead.

When Kiran was done, he stood there like Kai had earlier—making it clear that he would stand his ground.

Rokash sighed inwardly. God, what kind of pack members did he have here? Always beefing around and not following his orders right away like any other Omega would. On the other hand, it wouldn't be his pack if they followed his orders without their usual back talking and beefing.

Rokash was still growling dangerously, but didn't do much besides that as he pondered over what Kiran just had told him.

It was deadly silent in the room for several minutes with both wolvens staring at each other, thinking and sizing each other up.

That was until Rokash sighed for real this time. It was a rather human expression for a wolven, but since they're werewolves and not wolves, it was rather usual that human and wolven expressions would mix up and manifest in the other form. Like a wolven sighing or a human scratching almost as a wolven would.

Kiran was tense and anxious, waiting for Rokash's next reaction. Rokash could see it by the way he held his body and how he looked up to Rokash with a blend of different emotions.

Hope, fear, expectation, and many more.

Grif walked over to the wolven on the ground to stop in front of him and started licking the bite marks on Kiran's nose that had already started healing. They still weren't healed completely. Which was pretty normal for someone who had just gotten turned.

Grif licked the bite marks not only to make Kiran feel better, he also did it to apologize to his mate in some way for his roughness.

He was happy that Simmons decided to get turned by him to be together with him forever, but he still had to make it clear that he wouldn't accept his selfish behavior. That he wouldn't accept actions taken by his pack subordinates without him knowing of it. That he still was the leader and wanted to know what happened and wanted to have a say in any decisions taken. Even more so when they were as grave as Simmons' decision to get turned.

Rokash noticed with amusement that Kiran was totally flabbergasted at first, but when he started to understand what was going on he started wagging his tail—whining lowly from happiness now that Grif finally seemed to accept him as member of the pack and as his mate despite what he had done.

Sometime later on, when the injuries had healed and his leg was doing better, as Rokash had waited for the injuries to heal up as he knew that Simmons would have a stroke if he noticed any blood on the mattress later on, he walked over to the mattress lying on the ground beside the bed.

He yawned heartily, looking over at Kiran who still was standing in the middle of the room, looking somewhat lost.

He hadn't changed his body language much since he had woken up in the holding cell, but he felt relaxed. He seemed to realize that Rokash was okay with him and he seemed to have accepted his apologies.

His body language now only showed submission, making it clear that he was submissive towards Rokash, which the Alpha accepted.

Rokash now mumbled, making Kiran's ears peek upwards to catch what he just had said.

Extremely carefully, watching every movement of Rokash attentively, Kiran slowly inched closer to Rokash and followed his demand. He still was wary about Rokash's actions, as he obviously couldn't tell how he would react.

Sure, Simmons knew him and sure Kiran could act on instinct, but both of them had to get to know each other and Kiran had to get to know Rokash.

At some point later on, the wolven would know when he could listen to the redhead's advice on how to react to Rokash's actions.

And Simmons would have to learn when to better react on instinct.

Both of them had to learn how Rokash would react to Kiran's reactions. They knew each other in some ways already, Grif and Simmons, but on the other hand they had to get to know each other anew.

When he was beside Grif, the black wolven moved a little bit so Kiran could lie down beside him.

Carefully, the reddish mutt laid down beside the Alpha, still watching out carefully for his leg as it still seemed to hurt a bit. Rokash was sure that some sleep would help Kiran recover from the biting mark and all of his other injuries.

Kiran jumped a bit when Rokash buried his nose in Kiran's dark reddish brown fur. Soon he relaxed when he realized that Rokash was only trying to get him to snuggle closer.

Carefully he started leaning into the touch and Rokash could hear his contented sigh when he felt the weight of Rokash's head on his neck. Moments later, Kiran rested his head on Rokash's front paws.

Rokash yawned again before both settling in to sleep.

Kiran was tired. Rokash could tell by the way he way lying here, all exhausted and relaxed. Not so high strung and tense like how Simmons normally would be—although that had already gotten a lot better since they started dating.

Given everything that had happened with turning into a wolven and the arguing, Grif could understand him being tired. He was tired too.

So sleeping together just then probably was the best idea he had this whole day. And it would be the best way to apologize to his mate for his irascible behavior to boot.

There wasn't any better way to start anew than by snuggling.


	42. Chapter 42

Ever since Grif stopped acting angry and pissed about the fact that Simmons acted without getting his agreement first, he was enjoying the time he now had to be with the redhead even more.

Sure, Simmons still was struggling to get his changes in check and to be able to control the turning. At the moment, he was acting more on instincts which made it pretty difficult for Simmons to predict when he would be in which form.

Grif started to not think that any day would ever be the same as the previous one as a result of that.

One day, for instance, he would come home and find an almost panicking Simmons because he didn't want to turn again and instead spend some time with Grif without being a wolven so he was desperately trying to fight the change.

The other day was a real strange one, actually.

When Grif came home after work, he noticed something strange upon entering the room. He could hear Simmons whining, as he must have been in his wolven form again, and he could smell him.

But Grif couldn't see the latest member of his pack.

He furrowed his brows.

"Simmons?" the Alpha asked, waiting for his boyfriend to reply.

Another whine came, directly from the spot in front of him. And indeed, the Hawaiian could locate his smell coming from there.

He first took some moments to process what had happened. And then it hit him like a fucking train.

He groaned.

This fucking nerd of a boyfriend actually managed to somehow make a mix of his own inherent ability and the new wolven ability he had.

As if wolvens wouldn't be rare enough, he now obviously was the only wolven to turn invisible. Fucking peachy….

It took a moment to get used to the fact and to explain to Kimball and Carolina that Simmons was now a fucking wolven able to turn invisible but not able to turn to a human or to a wolven by his own free will.

On another day, weeks since the blood moon and already turning to winter, when Grif came home he could see Simmons desperately trying to do something while being in his wolven form.

He was sitting on the mattress, eyes squeezed shut and his whole body tense. If he actually were a human, Grif was sure he would have a beet red head. He looked like he would shit within the next few moments.

Grif couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the wolven sitting there all awkwardly.

Simmons started, looking up to Grif before realizing that the Alpha was back and immediately jumped up to greet him happily.

While petting his head, Grif asked with an amused undertone, "You okay, pal? You look like you were going to shit in the next moment there."

He heard Simmons grumble something while he turned his head away, obviously embarrassed that he got caught by his Alpha when trying something so ridiculous.

Grif sighed, knowing exactly what the problem was. Simmons was frustrated that he wasn't able to control the turning.

"Give it a rest, Simmons. You will be able to turn when you learn how to be a wolven better. It took me fucking years to become what I am. So don't think you're going to be able to control it within mere weeks. You always have been a nerd, but don't overuse your reputation now."

Simmons looked back at him, eyes squinted slightly with an overall expression saying _"Fucking asshole!"_ combined with a silent answer to where he could shove his next answer.

Grif chuckled lowly, getting up to get a shower and leave his fucking stubborn boyfriend alone to ponder over what he had just said.

Simmons wanted to be a wolven, so now he would have to live with the consequences. In this very moment it meant that he wouldn't be able to control everything and had to accept the fact that his instincts were stronger at the moment than his free will to control the turning.

Leaving the shower, he got another idea and passed by Simmons' room. He walked towards Kimball's room instead.

When he came back, Simmons obviously was trying something again.

"Dude, seriously, if you're going to shit on that bed I won't sleep on it anymore, you got me?" he crossed his arms, looking to the wolven in question who again had taken up this strangely awkward stance.

Okay, Grif knew that Simmons could be a fucking stubborn fucker and all which was even more the reason why he loved his boyfriend, but this was just ridiculous. Fucking ridiculous.

He chuckled again at Simmons' useless attempt and slipped out of his clothes to turn.

Since Simmons had become a wolven, he rarely spent a night in his human form, mainly only because Simmons was more a wolven than a human currently. The Hawaiian would adapt his form to Simmons'.

The next week, Simmons still was struggling with being able to turn properly. He managed by now to initiate the turn by his own free will, but he wasn't able to keep up the change until he was fully changed.

So often enough he would stop turning in the middle, hanging somewhere between human and wolven, and turn back to the initial form before he could do something against it.

Grif was actually pretty impressed that he was able to control his form already that well.

He had taken longer to even manage to turn somehow.

However, when he came home from work this day, he entered his room and stopped dead in his tracks.

His first thought was that his eyes were fucking with him when he saw Simmons sitting there with an utterly desperate expression on his face, but no, this really was Simmons.

Simmons jumped with surprise when he heard Grif starting to laugh so loud it sounded almost like barking. It was this kind of full belly laugh that rarely anyone got to hear, his whole body shaking from laughter.

It was… this situation….

This situation was just. So. Fucking. Hilarious!

There was Simmons, sitting on the bed in his human form.

However, this time he seemed to have managed to not turn back right away. Which was a good thing.

What was the rather bad, and most of all funny part, was that he hadn't been able to turn to his human form fully.

So he now was sitting on the bed, pointed teeth sticking out from his mouth, amber eyes full of fear with his tail close to his body. He of fucking course would have his tail between his legs when he was standing.

And, which was the most hilarious actually, he had huge wolven ears instead of human ears on his head. The ears were flat on his head, not on the back but looking like shades where his human ears would be.

The whole way he was looking just then was fucking hilarious. And… Grif had to admit, somewhat cute and unbelievably adorable.

Still chuckling, he sat down beside the redhead, "Got a bit stuck there, Simmons?"

Immediately, the wolven ears turned back on his head, face and ears showing his annoyance clear as day.

"Fuck you!" he had a slight lisp, coming from the sharpened teeth in his mouth. His human mouth wasn't used to talking with the fangs, as this kind of teeth exacerbated speaking.

"You look quite cute like that, you know." Grif grinned, although his voice didn't have its usual sarcastic undertone, "I'm thinking of taking a photo of you, just to have a memory of this look."

He grinned wolfishly, with Simmons growling in reply. He obviously was unnerved enough by the whole situation at hand, he didn't look like being up for a banter like they usually had.

Now, the Hawaiian combed a hand through his wet, unruly hair. For once, he directly went to the shower, without stopping by his room. He had fresh underwear in his backpack, so he didn't see the necessity to stop by his room in favor of a longer shower.

"Look, Simmons. I really can't help you on this front. Kai can't either. We're pureblood. We don't know how a turned can get his wolven being in check." He informed him in a more serious tone than usual, "Here, in our case, it just worked with the turning as we spent our first years as a wolven and had lots of time to get used to both of our forms."

Simmons still was giving him the silent treatment and Grif sighed.

"Listen, I checked with Kimball a week ago." This obviously caught Simmons' attention as his ears perked up. He still wasn't saying a word, but his eyes had this curious glint in them.

"She knew someone who might be able to help you better than I can. She informed me that this person has already arrived here which means that you have to show him and Kimball at least how you look right now, but he might just be able to help you better than I." Grif explained, already feeling his patience fading.

Someone should give him a fucking medal for being this patient up until now, as patience wasn't his strong suit.

Simmons nodded shortly after pondering about what Grif just told him, before saying, "But I would like them to come here."

"Sure thing, buddy." Grif said, getting up from the bed to go to Kimball's and check with her, "Although I am sure lots of people here would love to see you like that, you know. Are you sure I am not allowed to take a photograph?"

"Fuck you, asshole." Simmons grumbled, his ears again turning back on his head.

"Love you too, nerd." Grif replied with a lazy grin, exiting through the door.

He returned some minutes later with Kimball in tow and their guest: Rasheed Prathamibithan.

Immediately, Simmons jumped up, lying his palms together and bowing down in the usual Indian greeting.

"Rasheed Prathamibithan from the Grif-clan. It's an honor to meet you."

Rasheed imitated Simmons' greeting, before answering with a smile, "The pleasure is mine, Richard Simmons of the Grif-clan." He got up in a standing position to greet Grif too, Simmons standing straight as well.

After Rasheed exchanged some small talk with Grif, he turned back to Simmons, "I'd like to welcome you to the clan by the way. I am happy to see that you decided to become a full part of your pack."

Simmons rubbed his right arm self-consciously, where the biting marks were, "Yeah, I kind of had no other choice. My heart decided over my brain, I guess." He tried to smile awkwardly.

Rasheed smiled, "Then it is a good decision." He stopped shortly, taking in the view of the redhead, "I guess you are still struggling to control your ability?"

The redhead was shifting uncomfortably by now, answering sheepishly, "No, not really."

"He's being a nerd and he's hurrying himself." Grif added from his side, earning a sharp glance out of Simmons from the corner of his eyes. He flipped him off.

Kimball excused herself soon after, leaving the wolvens alone. She had a meeting with an important politician, but everyone knew that this guy was her temporary boyfriend. Although she could be his great-great-great-great grandmother. Whatever.

Sitting down on the bed, Grif observed how Rasheed asked Simmons to sit on the mattress, before he started talking again with his strange singsong voice.

"I am no pureblood either, Simmons." First, Simmons looked at the wolven with big eyes, but soon schooled his expression to listen to what he was telling him attentively, "I was bitten when I was thirteen. I was sleeping in the cottage I called my home, the wolven strolling around during the blood moon. They were one of the few who actively turned people and were not like others who keep away whenever the time drew closer." He showed his left lower leg, a biting mark still clearly visible there.

He rolled the sleeve of the pants back down, "My parents were working on a farm in the south of the country and I had to stay at home alone. I managed to cover up my abnormality pretty well. Besides, I had to learn how to control my ability pretty fast in order to keep it from my parents."

Rasheed shifted slightly to adjust his way of sitting. "As I heard from Kimball, your mate informed her that you are struggling to control your ability."

Simmons nodded silently, adding, "Got stuck somehow today while trying."

A smile darted over the Indian's face, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Every turned one struggles with this part. Some longer, some less long. Anyways, I learned how to control it with a rather simple trick. I came because I would like to teach you this trick and to train you."

Now not only was Simmons' curiosity piqued, but Grif's also.

"Meaning?" the Alpha asked, waiting impatiently for the Indian to answer.

Rasheed made a movement with his head, as if he wanted to gauge something, "I would like to reach back a bit to explain it. You pureblood wolvens," he nodded over to Grif, "are used to turn from wolven to a human and back. It comes naturally to you. You don't really have to think of it consciously like we turned ones have to. You don't think of turning up to the day you actually want to start turning."

He made a bobbing motion with his head, "It's like with children. They don't try to walk over and over again like we try to learn how to play a new instrument. They try to get up and if it doesn't work they let it be for some days before trying again until it works. But they don't try it nonstop like we grown-ups do when we're learning something."

He shifted from kneeling to now sit in the Indian style, "It's the same with purebloods. You try it and if it doesn't work, you leave it until you try it again some days later until it works. You're not really thinking of it consciously." He smiled, trying to defuse the situation. Grif actually had a vague understanding what he meant, "We turned ones have to do the turning more consciously than the purebloods. We have to concentrate on turning. Like…" He trailed off, obviously searching for the right words.

"It's like we purebloods do it more instinctively and you turned guys more consciously." Grif tried to supply.

Rasheed smiled and nodded, "Exactly, something like that."

"So this means I need some kind of mental trigger to turn and the more I train, the better I am able to turn?" Simmons asked, picking up on what Rasheed was trying to say.

Again, Rasheed smiled and nodded.

"Exactly, you are learning pretty fast." He praised the redhead.

The youngest wolven turned beet red at that.

"Anyways." Rasheed started again when nobody else seemed to want to talk, "My trick to turn is rather simple." He smiled apologetically. He obviously misunderstood Simmons' curious glance with disappointment, "When I am human and want to turn to a wolven, I imagine the full moon rising. In every detail. Do you think you can do that?" the Indian asked, regarding Simmons.

Said man nodded to the question.

Rasheed smiled again, "Perfect. Imagine that."

"And when turning human?" Grif asked, waiting to hear the other part.

"When I am a wolven and want to turn human, I imagine the full moon setting. As detailed as I would imagine it when rising." He explained, smiling again at the end of his explanations.

Grif turned his glance to Simmons, seeing how he was pondering over what Rasheed just told him, "So you're trying to tell me to use my instincts for my sake instead of trying to force it?"

Rasheed nodded, "Exactly. You can't work against your nature. You have to work hand in hand with it. So imagining the full moon rising or setting is something your wolven nature will respond well to given that. Trying to force it brings nothing but a headache."

"And a shit-covered mattress." Grif added with a shit-eating grin of his own to match.

Simmons' face turned sour and he flipped the pureblood off.

"So, Simmons of the Grif-clan, would you like to try it?" Rasheed asked after a moment.

The redhead nodded, determined.

The Indian man smiled, "Very well. But I would like you to try this exercise with your mate." He explained, looking over to Grif with an expectant glance.

"Me?" the Hawaiian asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes, because you are around more than I am. So when something happens, you can get him out when he isn't able to do it on his own."

"I see." He muttered, getting off the bed and down on the mattress. He sat down in front of his boyfriend.

"Okay, close your eyes… I guess?" the wolven started a bit insecurely, but he became more confident when he saw Rasheed nod from his peripheral vision.

Simmons closed his eyes.

"Good. Now try to breathe calm and regularly. It's okay and you're safe here." Grif tried to sound normal, although he suddenly felt as nervous as the redhead to see if this whole thing worked.

Simmons slowed his breathing, and soon Grif could hear his steady and rhythmic breathing.

"Now imagine the full moon, with all its details."

Simmons' eyebrows knitted together when he started with the difficult part.

"Imagine how it sets. Try to imagine it as if you would see it with your own eyes. I know you can do it." the Hawaiian encouraged the young wolven.

Indeed it took some moments, but then a shudder ran through Simmons' body.

His fangs retracted, his ears disappeared as well as his tail, and then he was sitting as a full human in front of him.

When Simmons opened his eyes, Grif noticed them being green as Simmons' eyes usually would be.

A fond smile appeared on the Hawaiian's lips, "Good job there, Simmons. You've always been a fucking nerd."

Simmons rolled his eyes, "Asshole. But… thanks." He replied, the smile on his face matching Grif's.

He looked around his mate to Rasheed, sitting there with a huge, happy smile as well, "I thank you too, Rasheed, for your advice. This is something I never would have thought of trying myself."

"Almost every turned wolven has his own way to adjust to the turning. Please feel free to find your own one while using my advice as some kind of a help to get started." He explained.

"I will, thank you Rasheed Prathamibithan of the Grif-Clan." Simmons answered, before adding with a sheepish look, "Would you mind staying some more days to train with us as you said you would do before even though I was able to turn fully human today?"

"I will, Richard Simmons, but I would like to stay in the background, letting you and your mate do all the work." Both of them nodded in understanding, "But I will advise you and help you if you should need it."

Grif and Simmons nodded again, but let Rasheed continue, "Although I have to warn you, Richard Simmons. It won't work as well as it had today all the time. There will be days where you won't be able to turn or where you can get stuck in-between without being able to get out of it for some time. Please be aware of that."

Simmons nodded again, "I will try to work as hard as possible then until you leave us again."

Grif elbowed him, muttering, "Fucking nerd."

Simmons elbowed him back, "Asshole."

Grif only chuckled at that, turning his attention back to Rasheed who got to his feet in that very moment.

"I think I will leave you both alone for today. Is it okay for you to keep on exercising tomorrow around the same time when Grif pureblood is back from work?" the Indian asked with a smile.

Grif bristled a bit at the odd way of addressing him, but he didn't say much more. He got up with Simmons, bowing to say his goodbyes to Rasheed before the other wolven left.

When the door clicked shut, Grif whirled around and caught Simmons in his arms, pressing a kiss to his love's lips.

His mate was so surprised by this action that he had his mouth slightly agape, eyes wide.

Grif used the opportunity to slip his tongue into the redhead's mouth.

He growled lowly when he didn't get a reply from Simmons.

Moments later, he rumbled happily in his chest when Simmons finally replied to the kiss.

They separated after a moment, Grif grinning like an idiot, "Wanted to do that for a while now."

Simmons huffed, muttering, "I hate you, asshole."

Grif chuckled, "I hate you too, nerd."

He let go of his mate, stretching his sore limbs, "How about we get some food and lie down afterwards?"

Simmons cocked an eyebrow, looking at Grif with an examining look, "Do you seriously only ever think of those things?"

Grif scoffed. "Hey I said _lying_ down. For all you know, I could also mean lying down on the bed and crashing right away."

Simmons laughed, "Yeah, as if you could just do that now that I am human again after weeks of being a wolven."

Grif knew exactly what Simmons wanted to say with these words, but didn't dare to speak it out aloud.

He grinned broadly, "What can I say? Guilty as charged."

This time it was Simmons' turn to scoff before getting up from the mattress he still was sitting on.

"Okay, then… let's get you something you eat and get you laid, fatass."

That Simmons was making such a clear announcement out of Grif's innuendo wasn't lost on him this time and he followed the redhead happily out of the room towards the mess a mere moment later.


	43. Chapter 43

It took Simmons some more weeks to be halfway capable of controlling his impulse to change. He could change from wolven to human and back now on his own, although he often struggled to keep up the change. Often he would be stuck in between for a short time, before turning completely to what initially wanted. Which wasn't actually something Grif considered as a complete turning.

Even more considering that Simmons often tend to turn uncontrollably when he was particularly stressed. Then his instincts still would treat to take over.

Which resulted more than not with him being stuck in this odd half-ling form he had the day Rasheed showed up.

Speaking of the Indian, he had returned to the Indian Sanctuary about a week ago. He said that Simmons had the necessary knowledge to be capable of turning now on his own. The only thing he needed was training together with Grif and, now that he was this far, also alone to not connect his turning to Grif, but to his mental image he used to initiate the turning.

Considering that Simmons was a rather young werewolf, it was fucking awesome how fast he learned to gain that much control over his second body. Other turned ones needed more time to adjust.

Well, Grif couldn't say that he wasn't a) fucking damn proud of his mate and clearly showed that and b) had to admit that Simmons was able to put his fucking thick head to use once.

His mate was strong willed and that was what gave him some advantage here. Thanks to his strong will, he learned to control his instincts faster than others.

On the other hand, he wouldn't mind seeing Simmons being stuck in this form in between. Part wolf, part human.

Well, he loved his mate and the way he looked when he was stuck in between was just fucking adorable. Well, he liked what he saw.

Much to Simmons luck, he wouldn't laugh anymore, but he would try to calm down Simmons do make it possible for him to finish the change.

Okay, he couldn't help but take a photograph of when Simmons once was stuck. His tail laid beside him on the bed, circling around his left hip. His wolven ears peeked up. Which came from his ears instinctively searching for the source of the clicking sound Grifs camera made. Pointed teeth and amber eyes completed the look.

The smoldering glare Simmons wore was something just fitting for his mate.

It was just… Simmons. But just an absolutely adorable and cute Simmons.

Walking out of the showers, he shortly dried up and got dressed. Walking back to his room, he shortly contemplated asking Simmons to print out the photo he took of him when he was stuck in-between. But he dismissed the thought again as Simmons probably would delete the photograph rather than printing it out.

He shortly contemplated getting some pre-dinner snack before going there with Simmons, but dismissed it soon after. He was way too lazy.

So he walked up to his room, entering it and first throwing his clothes in the washing basket. They now had Grifs and Simmons basket in the room, making it possible for everyone to distinguish Simmons' from Grifs' clothes.

When he turned, he could see Simmons laying on the mattress, in his wolven form. It wasn't really surprising that Simmons was in his wolven form, as he still needed to get used to this new body. So spending a lot of time in it helped him getting adjusted.

Which results in Simmons changing into wolven form after having done his duties and waiting for Grif to return.

Lifting his head, the young Omega observed his mate rummaging around in the room. His gaze never left the Alpha, following his every moment, as if he was waiting for something.

Which led to Grif sighing exasperatedly. "Okay, I bite. What is it?" asked the Hawaiian, turning and straitening up to look directly at Simmons.

The Omega didn't reply in any possible way, but the shudder suddenly running through his body put Grif on edge. Something was up with his mate and that made Grif considerably worried. He had gone through enough shit with Simmons during the past years to be cautious when something was up.

But this time, he was rather surprised to see how Simmons turned from wolven to human without any bigger flaw, sitting there after some minutes with a shy grin on his lips. Grifs could see the pride in the redheads eyes, but waited, as he felt like Simmons had something else coming.

The Alpha only nodded silently, waiting for Simmons to continue.

Indeed, it took another minute until another shudder ran through Simmons body.

Well, Grif should have stopped the redhead. Normally.

But first of all, Grif knew how fucking stubborn the redhead was. If he had put up his mind, he wouldn't be able to talk Simmons out of it.

Secondly, Simmons obviously was trying to show Grif something, which ended in Grif letting the redhead initiate yet another turning.

It took him a bit longer this time – no wonder considering he was performing his second turn within minutes – but again he managed a change without any bigger flaw or getting stuck in between.

When again the reddish brown mutt was sitting on the mattress, pride noticeable in his whole posture and tail wagging, Grif couldn't help but chuckle.

"You really trained so hard to show me that?" asked Grif, walking over to the wolven sitting there.

He could see the wolvens face fall, looking utterly crestfallen at Grifs comment, obviously struggling to understand why Grif was saying that.

"Okay, shit, uhm." Struggled Grif, thinking frantically for a way out. "Fuck, I'm not good with words."

The wolven huffed, still staring at his Alpha, but this time not with this crestfallen expression, but with mild amusement at his struggle.

Grif breathed out an 'asshole' before trying again. "It's awesome!"

Simmons only looked at him, disbelief clear in his eyes.

Grif sighed. "Mind turning human again?"

Simmons laid one ear to the side, mustering him, but not making an attempt to turn.

"Please?" tried Grif, putting in a pleading tone he never used to use unless for special events, like this one here.

Another shudder ran through Simmons, taking some minutes until Simmons sat there again. Although being buck fucking naked, Simmons got up, not caring about his nudity. That was something he seemed to have learned from being with Grif and being a wolven. Not to be ashamed of his nudity.

On the other hand, being a wolven always brought a change in your character. In Simmons case, it was a fucking big boost in his confidence.

He was very well aware of his effect on Grif and he shamelessly used it to his advantage. It had happen a few times by now that Simmons seduced his mate just with knowing what effect he had on his mate.

And damn if Grif didn't like it!

Anyways, back to the topic, Grif just observed the redhead slipping in some boxers, before walking over to the Hawaiian and standing there with a questioning look on his face.

"Why did you want me to change?" asked the redhead, looking at Grif who still looked rather spaced out, before shaking himself out of his daze.

The surprise in Simmons face turned into a grin when he felt Grif grab him around his waist and pulling him in close for a kiss.

When they separated, Grif pulled him close, muttering in his ear, when Simmons replied the embrace: "I'm fucking proud of you."

Simmons pushing back a bit with a smile he observed the Hawaiian, who didn't seem to be done. "You're really awesome, you know that?"

Grif leaned in for another kiss, Simmons replying it happily.

Simmons didn't answer, but smile happily, beaming with pride and joy about the praise he just got from Grif.

"We seriously need to go shopping some new clothes. You ruined almost all of them at least." Rambled Grif on with a happy grin, the pride in his voice and on his face evidently. "And we need to celebrate with Kai. We definitely need to celebrate your first birthday together!" Grifs rambling kept on. "A huge bash, only we three together!" Grifs grin soon began to falter, before he added with a watery smile. "My mom would be so fucking proud of you, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know she would be. As proud as she was of you and Kai. Always." Replied Simmons, kissing Grif gently.

Immediately his grin returned to his features, replying the kiss eagerly.

When the separated the next time, Grif pulled away, saying. "I need to tell Kai. We can celebrate after dinner!"

Before he was able to walk out, he was held back by Simmons holding his forearm. "What's it Simmons?" asked Grif, noticing the sheepish smile on Simmons lips.

"Well, I thought that it had been some time since we last were on holiday…" trailed Simmons off, noticing the sun setting. He knew that it was four days to full moon, so better getting over with.

Obviously, Grif had already caught up on what Simmons wanted to say, before he was even able to form the next sentence after his short mental detour.

"You mean…" Grif started, disbelief mixing with happiness as he realized what Simmons implied. "Hawaii?"

Simmons nodded, smiling fondly at Grifs display of happiness. "You, me and Sister? What do you think?"

"Fucking awesome!" exclaimed Grif, enveloping the redhead in yet another hug, whirling him around with a happy laugh.

"Let's check when we all can get some days off and then let's go! This will be so awesome. And we will go shop and celebrate there for your first birthday!" rambled Grif, happiness in his voice and whole body language while he was beaming up to his mate.

The redhead only smiled happily while he carefully wiggled out of Grifs iron grip. He felt like he would crush his ribs soon.

Grif let go of Simmons, except of his hand, at which he was dragging him to the door. "Come on, let's get something to eat and then check with Kimball for some booze to make a little celebration bash. We really need to tell Kai and celebrate this day!"

Simmons laughed lowly while following Grif, although he held up the wolven for a moment to make a maroon cross on the calendar to write down his now second birthday. Although if this here was his second or third birthday was yet to decide. Well, considering that he almost died the last time, he rather suspected this being his second birthday and forget about what happened in the heart of the Sanctuary so long ago.

Entering the mess, they could see Kai already waiting for them at one of the tables. They shortly waved her hello before lining up to get food.

Soon after, they sat down at the table their pack member was sitting and waiting for them, her food already eaten.

"Yo Kai." Greeted the redhead, sitting down at the table. She shortly looked at him, studying him as his whole body language was practically screaming 'proud as fuck!' but decided not to bring it up.

Her gaze wandered over to Grif, who also looked rather proud of something. She lift an eyebrow at her brother, silently asking him what was up. Grif mimicked her question, silently asking 'what?'.

Kai rolled her eyes in reply, before going at her dessert.

Simmons was eating happily, now even eating his dessert for once, Grif not pleading him to get Simmons dessert. Well, must be the day, actually.

When Simmons was done with his food and Kai was about to leave to go to her room, the Omega spoke up. "Hey Kai."

Grif left for his second dish, but kept a close eye on them, observing Simmons and Kai interact.

"'Sup, Nerd." Answered Kai, emptying her can of coke.

"You wanna come over when Grif's done with his fatassery?" asked the Omega casually.

"Huh?" Her head shot up from her cellphone, mustering the redhead sitting there with an awkward smile.

"Coming to us after dinner. You don't have a date, don't you?" Simmons grinned wolfishly when he saw Kais face turn red. Aha, something to ask her out about some when later.

"You pregnant?" asked Kai, mustering Simmons again from head to toe. Simmons blushed bright red. That was a nice comeback sister, very nice.

"No!" stuttered the redhead, "I- uh- I-" stuttered Simmons with a beet red face, trying to get his brain working correctly.

That was, until a tray was put down beside Kai, on the opposite side of Simmons. "Something else. But not less important. So, if Simmons asking you doesn't get you to come, I order you as Alpha." Grifs voice was deadly serious.

"Geee, no need to get all cranky brother. I'm coming. You don't need to order me." Replied Kai, leaning back in her chair with a grin.

Both of the subordinates waited for their Alpha to finish his meal before leaving the mess together. Kai said something of dressing up a bit for this 'oh so important shit you have to announce' while Grif and Simmons shortly went to Kimball to organize something.

Seeing Simmons being proud and Grif being even prouder she decided to open up her good stack, giving them a bottle of good ole whisky. Way too strong, but Grif refused to drink this bubble water as it reminded him of mister bubbly, Donut, and his strange attitude.

So in the end, Simmons decided to bite the bullet and take the whisky. He thanked Kimball for the stuff and the glasses, promising to bring it back.

Kimball insisted only in getting the glasses back in the end, saying it is okay for the pack to drink the whisky.

Entering their room, Simmons started setting up the three glasses, before putting away the bottle. They would be able to drink one glass, before they had to get ready for the change. Glancing at the clock, he observed Grif opening the door for Kai. They had about half an hour left to celebrate.

Handing the glasses to Kai and Grif, he stood there with a proud but nonetheless sheepish smile. He felt his face becoming a slight little bit hot when he felt Kais eyes on him.

"So, why did my brother and his mate asked me over? I guess not only to get wasted before turning?" Kai mustered the Whisky, taking a tentative sip of it, before humming approvingly.

"Well, first of all, we thought of going to Hawaii again for some days." Started Simmons, seeing Kais face light up at the prospect of going 'home' again.

"Neat!" exclaimed the female wolven with a grin before turning serious again. "But I guess that's not the main reason."

"Yes and no." Started Grif with a proud grin, laying an arm around Simmons waist and pulling him in close. "We want to do some shopping and celebrating there, this here being some minor thing to celebrate because today is a pretty special day for Simmons."

Pride was practically oozing off the Hawaiian, while Simmons still wore a smile between sheepish, happy and proud.

"Wait a sec. Are you really trying to say what I think you want to say?" asked Kai, the grin getting wider with every moment passing.

Grif chuckled, pulling Simmons closer into his chest. "If you think that I want to say that it's Simmons first birthday, you're right."

Simmons actually groaned at the complicated way of speaking of the siblings, but didn't comment further as Kai exclaimed. "Fucking awesome gray guy!" she shouted.

Simmons actually was rather happy she didn't fling her arms around his neck as both of them still had their glasses full with whisky.

They kept on chatting for some more minutes, Kai and Grif rambling what they could do when being in Hawaii again while Simmons smiled fondly at them while listening to their rambling.

This would be his first holiday as a wolven in the homeland of the wolven.

About half an hour later, the redhead interrupted the chatting of the siblings, hinting at the fact that the moon was about to rise and it was four days to full moon. Everyone knew what this meant.

Kai emptied her glass before leaving Grif and Simmons alone to go to her room.

Simmons and Grif got rid of their clothes before sitting down on the mattress. They used the last moments as human cuddling and kissing.

"I am fucking dang proud of you." Muttered Grif, seeing a shiver run through Simmons and feeling one coming up on him too, "And I love you."

Simmons smiled happily. "I love you too." Muttered the redhead in reply before kissing his boyfriend again.

After this one last kiss, their turning began and soon they were laying there, closely cuddled up together and sleeping soundly.


	44. Chapter 44

It was in the middle of the night when Simmons stepped out on the balcony of the house they were living in during their holidays on Hawaii.

The house belonged to Kimball, getting maintained and kept in shape by some people being employed just for that.

The regular and silent leaping of waves on the beach was intriguing but unused to Simmons. He was used to the sound of cars passing by, but not to the surge of waves.

Which was the reason why he wasn't sleeping well and going on the balcony to get some fresh air. He looked out to the beach, observing the waves sparkling in the light of the half-moon.

The sand on the beach was sparkling as wonderful as the beach where it was wet and Simmons was sure the sand still was warm where the sun shone on it the whole day without the waves cooling the sand.

The tide just started, the sea starting to get higher and higher on the beach and washing away the heat and some dirt of the day, leaving a cleaned beach for the next day.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he suddenly noticed a shadow. Turning his head, he could see that a wolven was trotting along the beach.

The redhead could tell from his posture that this must be an Alpha. His posture was way too cocky and his gait way too confident to be an Omega. Second point was, that no Omega in such a place, where lots of wolvens used to live, would wander out alone.

"That's Cole Nightstalker from the Starwalker clan." Simmons jumped almost a meter high when he heard Grifs sudden voice behind him.

How was such a pudgy person able to be so fucking stealthy!?

"Who?" Simmons asked, not leaving the other Alpha out of his eyes.

"Cole Nightstalker from the Starwalker clan." Explained Grif. "It's a Clan that came up when we left Hawaii. He's an asshole par excellence." Growled Grif, if he had ears, he would have them flat on his head. His teeth were bared and a low growl emitted.

"Taking from your reaction he's the guy who killed your dad?" asked Simmons, grasping Grifs hand to make him cool down.

Grif nodded curtly, having his eyes still glued on the other Alphas form wandering along the beach.

"He killed my dad and took my mom away. Additionally he is the Alpha who takes over pack after pack to enlarge his pack without considering the consequences." Grifs eyebrows knitted together, his whole posture rigid and strained.

Simmons let his hand wander up Grifs arm, until he reached the wolvens head where he started to gently scratch the spot he knew the Hawaiian was so fond of.

"Which is also the reason why you don't want to come back as long as he's here." Stated Simmons, looking down to the wolven who was looking up to them. The redhead knew that the Alpha was challenging Grif but the irish-dutch man decided to herd Grif into their bedroom before it could escalate.

Closing the door, he made clear that he wasn't interested in any confrontation possible.

Grif sighed heavily when he sat back down on the bed, Simmons accompanying him seconds later. "He… wants to have the whole island under his control by having the biggest pack here. Dominance and some kind of weird idea to rule the world."

"Strange guy…" muttered Simmons.

"Yep, even more considering that he is one of the guys who is pretty strict about pups which aren't his." Replied Grif, his posture still tense although he slowly started to relax due to Simmons petting.

"Wait… You're saying that… he is killing every pup which isn't his?" asked Simmons, terror obvious in his voice. He already hear this kind of behavior of Gorillas or Lions, but wolvens, that was new.

Grif nodded. "It's actually rather common that new leaders let the pups of his predecessor live until their old enough to leave the pack. Considering the hunters and shit it's pretty much of a dick move killing your own kind." Explained Grif, rubbing over his face.

Both looked up when the door opened and a sleep huddled Kai walked in and took up her spot beside Grif. Neither needed to speak a word as to why she's coming over. She must have scented the wolven too and felt uneasy being alone as a wolven.

It was quiet for some moments, before Simmons concluded. "So he's one of the old fashioned kind and gets rid of the pups of his predecessor in order to get the females ready for a new pregnancy as fast as possible?"

Grif only nodded curtly, pulling Kai and Simmons closer because he felt his pack being endangered.

"He would have killed us too if mom hadn't left us. This left us a small chance to survive unlike when she would have stayed with us." Muttered Kai, already having picked up on the subject they were talking about.

Simmons started out to the wall in front of him, pondering about everything.

"How about we try to sleep as we will return home tomorrow anyway and tell Kimball of this development? She's no wolven, but she has a huge wisdom coming from her age. Maybe she has an idea?"

Both of the pureblood lapsed into silence, pondering about what Simmons just suggested.

"Maybe you're right. Perhaps she knows something to cut this asshat down on size." Grumbled Grif, Kai nodding along when they both settled on a decision.

Simmons smiled gently, again starting to scratch Grifs scalp.

"Something else bothering you?" asked Grif suddenly, observing his mate from the corner of his eyes.

Simmons shortly blinked before he shook his head. This here wasn't the time nor the place to discuss the idea he had.

"Just a bit on edge because of the asshole outside. Understandably as this is my first encounter with a foreign Alpha treating to take over my pack and possibly kill my pack members." Lucky him he had gotten much better in lying than he had been years ago.

Grif again shortly mustered him, obviously letting the excuse pass Simmons put up.

"Okay, so this guy outside obviously noticed us and is challenging our Alpha to a fight." Concluded Simmons, mustering both of the siblings.

Kai nodded, so did Grif.

"I hope I can rely on your famous laziness to not accept the fight he is challenging you to?" asked Simmons with a glance towards Grif.

The wolven only snorted, but didn't give an answer.

"Grif." Repeated Simmons with a stern voice.

"Yeah, yeah." Muttered Grif with an agitated undertone.

"Yeah, yeah means go fuck yourself." Stated Simmons dryly, Grif growling angrily. "Yeah, I won't put up a fight."

"Good." Simmons resumed scratching Grifs scalp to make him relax at least a notch while Kai pressed further into her brother, who had laid a protective arm around her shoulders and kept her close.

"We should put up a strategy to get this night over without someone of us going crazy." Explained Simmons, looking nervously out of the window to where the other wolven used to be around.

"And what do you suggest?" growled Grif, the strain again returning to his posture. The challenge of the wolven just being around and harassing this place with his scent was enough for Grif to be put on edge and wanting nothing more than fighting him.

Simmons bit the nail of his right thumb. Shitty habitude he took up when he was stressed. What was best to do? Their flight would go in about fourteen hours. It was about four o'clock.

Twelve hours being here would Grif definitely making want to fight him, no matter what they would say.

So they needed another solution. They couldn't just lock themselves up here. They needed something else. Driving around for hours also is some kind of idiotic, considering the wolven still could follow them or wait at special points to make Grif angry and want to protect his pack members.

They needed to get Grif out of this Alphas vicinity. They couldn't afford a fight. Neither Grif getting hurt nor Grif having to take over a pack down here. Both would be simply idiotic. Even more considering Grif also was saying that he didn't want a larger pack than he has. Maybe two or three more tops but that would be the absolute maximum.

So what to do….

Biting the nail of his thumb, he frantically searched for solutions. Letting his glance wander, he could see Kai trying to distract Grif from the challenging Alpha outside. His glance wandered further, to a mirror, up to the tickets for the flight back in about fourteen hours.

Determined, the wolven got on his feet, snatching his cellphone and shortly leaving the room to make a call.

It was ass-early in the morning, but obviously some of the people were already around to help him out with his request.

Simmons was sure that they would be able to rebook their flight, even more considering they would take the first plane and not much, except of business people would fly this early.

They would be too early at the airport for Kimball to pick them up, but that would be something they easily could organize. Nothing spectacular.

Both wolvens lift their head when Simmons returned to the room, his cellphone still on his ear. "…yes… yes… I would appreciate that… Simmons… S-I-M-M-O-N-S. You got that?" Simmons rolled his eyes, flopping down on the bed beside the guys. "… Yes, in two hours… that's no problem, we can manage that… That's great. I thank you very much. Have a nice day."

With those words he hung up, exhaling deeply afterwards. God this girl had been dumb as a sack of bricks. He wouldn't be surprised if she didn't manage to do their rescheduling.

He shortly rubbed his hands over his face, before facing the wolven, still waiting for an explanation. "Okay, we fly in two hours. You manage to pack up your shit so we're at the airport in 45 minutes tops?"

"I thought we're flying in 14 hours?" asked Kai. "I wanted to go swim again."

Simmons offered her a crooked smile. "I know sister, but considering the Alpha being out there, I think Grif is going to bite off our head before sunrise, so we better get going. The Alpha knows we're here and he will challenge Grif until he gives into his instincts. And I don't want Grif either to be dead or having a pack bigger than a regular army."

Kai blinked several times, processing what Simmons just said. "Okay, I go pack my stuff. Gimme ten minutes and I got it covered." She got up from the bed and left the room.

Simmons too got on his feet. "Come on, let's pack our stuff too." He pulled Grif on his feet, not to make him help – He never helps in any chores Simmons does – But to make him get distracted from the wolven."

Indeed, Grif seemed to get the hint and got up to help his mate packing up his shit.

They managed to be ready within the offered ten minutes. While packing, Simmons ordered a cab to their house to take them to the airport.

Indeed, they managed it just in time for the check-in. Before the boarding they had some time left for a typical Hawaiian breakfast. Grif already was much more at ease, considering the Alpha was some miles away and his scent wasn't present here.

They enjoyed some pineapples additionally to their breakfast, watching the sun slowly starting to rise.

Maybe the Alpha was gone now, but Grif would just _know_ that this asshat was around and wouldn't be able to relax for the whole day. Which would mean that his whole relaxation from the last days would be gone to waste in less than a day.

Afterwards, they bout a garland made of red hibiscus and boarded the airplane which would bring them back to Atlanta.

Soon after, when they were in the air and off in direction of Atlanta, Simmons, sitting between the wolven siblings, felt something heavy coming to rest on his shoulder.

When he turned his head to see what it was, he could see Grifs head lying there, the Alpha snoring quietly and utterly relaxed.

"He would never admit it, but he's pretty glad you made it possible to leave early." Kai had leaned forward a bit, mustering her brother's sleeping figure. "He was on edge the whole night, and that wouldn't have gotten fucking better with the sunrise. He's a stubborn idiot and sometimes needs someone slapping the fool out of him."

Simmons grinned, shifting a bit to provide a better angle for Grifs head and himself to not feel any pain after some minutes of sitting like that.

"His human side was just too lazy for a fight. I guess that's what kept him from the fight." He looked over to Kai, who made a motion with her head between a nod and a shake. "Not exactly. He just knew that there would be no need and no logic sense behind going out and fighting him. Even more, he is unused to fights. He had some when we were younger, but for his age, he is extremely inexperienced. He would lose against such an experienced fighter. And getting away with his life would be a win for him in this case." She explained, mustering her sleeping brother.

A stewardess came by, asking if she should bring a quilt for the sleeping passenger. Simmons shortly looked to Grif, before nodding and asking the stewardess to do so. Grif looked a bit cold.

Considering the fact that they all hadn't gotten much sleep during the last night, it wasn't really surprising that Grif might feel cold.

Minutes later the flight attendant brought the quilt and spread it over Grif before leaving again when the other two reassured that they're okay.

When the woman was out of earshot, Simmons sighed. "I know what you mean. He's protective and a very good Alpha. He just never had to fight like others had. Maybe that's what's he missing. Or maybe that isn't so much of a reason as the fact that he would have to lead such a huge ass pack when he would win. Even outsiders can win a fight."

Kai now looked out of the window, seeing the landscape passing by. They were over the mainland now. "I know what you mean. But against Cole he wouldn't have stood one single fucking chance. He's too dominant and too strong." Kai grinned wolfishly before adding. "Never tell him that though. He's a pride fuck and would be extremely pissy when he would hear that from his mate."

Simmons chuckled at her words, mirroring the smile. "Better we leave him thinking he's the strongest of them all."

Kai made a dismissive motion with her hand. "He doesn't need to be the strongest. It's enough for him to know when you think he's the strongest and the best. And I really hope you think that of him." Kais voice got stern within moments. "You know, wolvens can be even more jealous than any werecat ever could be when they think their mate has laid eye on someone else."

Simmons couldn't help but snicker, which stirred Grif a bit. He started mumbling in his sleep, only slipping back when Simmons scratched the spot on his scalp right behind where his wolven ears normally would be.

"I already thought that he maybe might just a tad jealous considering how he already used to react when he thought I'm going to run away with someone else when he wasn't around. It took some time for him to really trust me." Simmons eyes wandered off to a far point in the past.

Kai grinned. "That's normal. Most wolvens are cautious at first because of our bonding. When we bonded, we cannot unbond. So it's like a test. We only trust when we know they're really loyal to us."

"I know." Simmons laughed lowly while still scratching Grifs scalp. "I'm a wolven too now, already forgotten?"

Kais face took up a shade of pink when she stared down on her fingers. "Uh, sorry. I guess you already know that by yourself."

Simmons ruffled Kais hair with a low laugh. "It's okay sister. I'm always up to learn something now. At least I'm still a rookie to this business. I just making fun of you like you often tend to do."

"Just that we ain't used to you being so coky." Replied Kai with a grin when she realized that Simmons really wasn't angry with her.

"Yeah I now. I guess something you need to get used to then, huh?" The mischievous glint in his eyes stayed, even as Kai tried it with a half-assed comeback. "Whatever, nerd."

"Guilty as charged." Replied Simmons dryly, before adding. "You better try getting some sleep too or everyone might think you're some kind of zombie or we left you in Hawaii and took someone else with us."

Kai punched his shoulder with a playful "Hey!" before a yawn forced its way out.

She shifted a bit to be comfortable in the seat and fell asleep minutes later.

Simmons stayed awake, keeping watch over the Grif siblings and pondering about the idea he got while standing on the balcony and listening to the sea in Hawaii during the last nights.


	45. Chapter 45

Simmons shot out of bed when the alarm went off, not caring in the slightest that he felt lightheaded momentarily as his body needed to adjust to suddenly being awake and on his feet.

He snatched his shirt up and ran down to the heart of the Sanctuary while slipping the cloth on.

Of course something had to fucking happen when Kimball had decided to finally take a week off and visit Italy, and when Carolina was out on a date with York!

He could already hear someone starting to scream in one of the upper rooms as he was running to the stairs.

In the Sanctuary proper, the redhead could see Donut in his tank. He was pressing his hands against his temples with his mouth open as though he were screaming silently.

The screaming, however, was coming from someone else.

In that very moment, the door flung open with Bitters standing there. He was holding a shivering and whimpering Matthews in his arms.

"Simmons! What do I do?! Matthews is freaking out!"

Simmons could smell his fear and the wolven's hackles stood up. He fought the urge to shift into his wolf form right then and there.

He needed to be his human self at the moment.

"Bring him to the psychic-safe rooms!" Simmons ordered, before shooting off a text to Carolina that she should come back as soon as possible as something terribly wrong was going on here.

Right after that, he sent another message to Wash to get North to the other psychic-safe room as he was no doubt in pain too.

The psychic-safe rooms were rooms he had the idea to originally build.

Thanks to special electrical and magnetic fields flowing through their construction, a telepathically or empathically gifted person was able to read thoughts or project mental and emotional messages outside of these rooms but people who went into these specially designed psychic-safe rooms were exceptionally hard to read by telepaths or empaths. Psychics who entered the rooms weren't able to feel or read the thoughts of those outside of them nearly as easily too.

North had once described entering the rooms to him as an experience akin to a constant buzzing and interfering going on all around you. Almost as though you were experiencing a bad phone connection.

Being there would help both him and Matthews to not directly receive Donut's agony.

It wasn't as well-known outside of the Abnormal community, but mermaids and mermen were also telepaths.

They communicated with one another through telepathic messages in their colonies, and because of that Donut was also capable of communicating on a mental wavelength with North and somewhat with Matthews too.

In fact, he often trained with Matthews so that the empath would be able to get more used to his own empathic abilities.

At the moment, however, said merman was still floating in his tank and screaming silently in the water.

Without another thought on the subject, Simmons climbed up the ladder to the tank to check on his usually cheerful friend.

He felt a slight note of panic given what had happened the last time he had done so, but fought the urge he had to jump down again as a result.

Arriving on the top of the tank, he managed to grab one of Donut's arms and hauled the other man out of his tank onto the deck. Given what was going on with Donut, he could care less that he was all wet now because of that.

Donut's screams had now started to become vocal and incredibly loud, causing Simmons to wince in pain as his sensitive ears began to hurt from the incessant and shrill cries of agony and pain.

"Donut! Donut!" He shook the merman to get his attention.

He could see that Donut's eyes were huge, wide, and filled with both immense pain and terror. Simmons could understand why he only wanted to scream in pain just then with what he was able to read in the merman's eyes.

"What's going on?!" the redhead asked, his own voice tinged with panic as he observed the merman struggling to stay still and not start up again with his screaming once Donut had finally been able to quiet down.

"My…" Donut started, though he had to stop to get new air into his lungs, "My colony is dying! Something is attacking them and killing them!" Donut cried, pressing his hands to his temples as though he was feeling as if his head was going to explode from mounting pressure at any second.

"Your colony?" Simmons had to suppress his own growing sense of fear and dread at the declaration.

That would be especially horrific and tragic, as Donut was from the only mermaid and mermen colony left in all of the seven seas. Should his colony be killed off completely, his people would most likely go extinct as there weren't too many of them like Donut who had traveled outside of it.

"Yes!" the merman cried out again in pain, "They are all being killed by something! I don't know what it is, but there's so much agony and panic!"

Simmons bit his right thumbnail and thought frantically about what to do. As much as he would like to do so, he couldn't check on the colony right now himself. He would need to inform Kimball about all of this so that she could schedule a trip to where the colony resided with her submarine, the Nautilus.

He sighed and began climbing down again from the deck as he reassured Donut, "Wait here. I'll be back shortly."

Simmons didn't like that he had to leave his friend given the situation, but he needed to do so as it would be what was best for Donut in the long run.

He quickly went to the surgery room before he returned to the anxious and pained merman.

While he was heading back, he ran into Grif in his wolven form. His mate was looking up at him questioningly, almost looking a bit fearful at what was going on. Which was understandable since most of the other residents of the Sanctuary were only getting bits and pieces of information about what was happening.

The redhead smiled comfortingly and patted his head, "Donut's colony is being attacked." He informed him, "I have everything covered, I think…so please wait in the heart for me later, okay?"

Grif nodded and followed his mate to the heart of the Sanctuary, where he waited in the middle to stay out of the way in case Simmons needed to make a fast exit for whatever reason.

Simmons climbed up the ladder again and administered the medication he had retrieved for the merman without even waiting for his okay. It was a strong tranquilizer.

He needed Donut to calm down before it wasn't just North and Matthews freaking out. The more animalistic inhabitants of the Sanctuary would also start to react nervously and begin to panic themselves as their instincts started to take over if Donut continued broadcasting his agony throughout the entire Sanctuary as he was doing currently.

And that wouldn't be good for anyone, certainly not for Donut who needed their help especially right now.

After that, he climbed down the ladder and arranged for the pool water to be exchanged by the integrated water-cleaning and filtering station.

When the alarm finally turned off and the stress pheromones in the water went down to a more normal level, he checked on Donut again before putting him back into the tank.

He might have been currently sedated, but Donut was safer in the water than outside of it given his origins. He would just be floating around in his sleep before waking up a few hours from now and complaining because Simmons had given him such a strong tranquilizer.

Hopefully by then, the situation would have calmed down in general and Donut would be able to process what was going on more without so much pain and terror too.

When he was sure that everything was all right with Donut, he shot off a text to Kimball about how they needed the Nautilus. He told her about what had happened so far at the Sanctuary and that he would inform her in even more detail about the situation when she came back.

Her response came back immediately.

 _You and Carolina can go check on them. Please tell Carolina to organize everything._

At that very moment, the female redhead burst into the room looking as though she had run the whole way there.

York came in behind her, looking even worse. He was breathing heavily while Carolina hadn't even broken into a sweat although Simmons knew just how much she had probably pushed them to get back to the Sanctuary as quickly as they had.

"What happened?" the phoenix asked in a commanding voice as Simmons turned away from Donut's tank to look at her.

His expression was deadly serious and Carolina stopped talking immediately, sensing that whatever was going on here was incredibly bad given how tense the other redhead was.

"Donut's colony is being killed." she sharply sucked in her breath at his announcement, "Kimball has already giving her okay for both of us to use the Nautilus. We should both go immediately."

Carolina nodded, remaining in the room and listening intently to Simmons' succinct summary of the situation.

"…In the end, Donut had to be sedated and both Matthews and North are in a psychic-safe room now." He informed her in closing, "I wanted to go and check on them before heading out just to make sure they're doing better now. I would be really grateful if you could start organizing everything for us to leave as soon as possible to check on the colony."

Carolina gave a curt nod once more and left the room quickly. York left her side to go check on North himself. He was a good friend to both him and Carolina, after all.

Simmons first went to the room where Matthews was, knocking on the door before entering.

He could see that Bitters was sitting on a chair inside with Matthews lying limply in his arms.

The Dryad looked extremely worried and anxious, which was understandable given what had happened to his boyfriend.

"Donut has been sedated, so he shouldn't be broadcasting his pain anymore. How is Matthews doing?" Simmons asked gently.

"I was hoping you could tell me." Bitters looked down at Matthews, a concerned expression flickering across his face as the empath continued to remain unresponsive in his protective arms.

The redhead kneeled down beside the drowsy-looking Matthews and quickly examined him, testing his pupil reaction to light and other things that Doctor Grey had taught him as standard procedures for this type of thing.

Everything looked fine. Thankfully.

After a moment, he got up and looked at the anxious Bitters.

"He's fine currently. It could be that he will have a massive headache or migraine tomorrow, but aside from that it doesn't look like there's going to be any huge or lasting problems from this experience." Simmons explained, noticing how Bitters' face relaxed immediately at the news.

"However, I would suggest keeping an eye on him for the next few hours just to make sure that there really was no damage we're just not noticing at the moment. Just as a safety precaution, I am pretty sure he will be fine!" Simmons added in that last part quickly when he saw the worry returning to the Dryad's face at his advice.

It took Simmons a few more minutes to further calm down the worried Dryad and hammer into him that Matthews was most likely going to be fine, and that they just needed to be one hundred percent sure of that.

Having Bitters wake him up regularly and check on his pupils would be a good help in that department.

Simmons showed him what the normal reaction of the pupil should look like. Anything that was noticeably slower than that was a sign that something was off and that he would need to inform Simmons or Doctor Grey about it, no matter how late or early it was in the day.

Bitters nodded, gathering Matthews up in his arms once more and leaving the psychic-safe room. He headed in the direction of their shared room together, as it was probably for the best for Matthews to be able to recover from the trauma that had been forcibly pushed onto him in his own room.

You always healed better when you're resting in your own surroundings.

Upon leaving the room, he once again patted Grif's head. He left his hand lying on Grif's furry neck as they walked over to the other room where York was standing beside an unconscious North.

North was sitting on a chair with his head on the table before him. He looked pretty much knocked out currently.

That was most likely because, as a telepath, he had received an even stronger dose of the growing fear and agony that Donut had unintentionally broadcasted to them than Matthews had as an empath. Caught unawares by it and before he was able to build up his mental wall, Donut had already made his way inside his head.

Simmons examined him quickly before also giving him a more or less clean bill of health. He simply asked York to keep an eye on him just in case there were any changes.

The Freelancer nodded, texting Wash to help him haul North's unconscious body back to his room.

The werecat appeared soon after, looking rather disheveled and Simmons decided he really didn't want to know what Wash had been doing with Tucker for comfort and reassurance from his own worries about his friend around the time when he had received the text to help York with North.

When Simmons left the room himself, he groaned and stretched his sore muscles. He heard his right shoulder pop and sighed.

Man, what a night this had turned out to be.

Tired but determined, he left the heart of the Sanctuary and walked up to Kimball's office.

Carolina was already sitting there, staring in concentration at the computer screen before her with a phone practically glued to one of her ears.

She shortly said something, making an approving sound at whatever the response was from the other side of the phone line as she bid her goodbyes soon afterwards.

When she hung up the phone, she looked over to Simmons who was waiting patiently for Carolina to speak up.

"I can go down with the Nautilus to check on the colony tomorrow early in the morning."

Simmons raised an eyebrow at how she seemed to be implying that she would be going there alone.

She mirrored his action, "Don't worry, I'm going to be taking York with me." she told him, "You need to stay here and lead the Sanctuary. We can't afford to leave the Sanctuary without anyone in charge, particularly with events as they stand. You understand me?"

Simmons knew that she wouldn't accept any backtalk now that she had made up her mind and had evidently gotten Kimball on board with her way of thinking too, so he only nodded and shortly discussed everything with her that they would need to prepare for concerning the next few days.

When they were finally finished with that, Carolina left to pack her stuff and inform York about their upcoming mission while Simmons went to the mess hall and waited for everyone to file in there to inform all of the Sanctuary residents about what had happened.

Sure, he wouldn't be telling them everything at the moment to avoid understandable panic since that wouldn't help the situation any, but he would give them the necessary information and then he would ask Sarge to drive them to the airport tomorrow morning.

The Nautilus was already being shipped by its crew who took care of it when Kimball wasn't using the submarine to the closest port of the last known location of where the constantly moving colony lived so that Carolina could get there fast.

About a week later, Simmons was sitting in the head office with Kimball who had understandably returned from her "relaxing and Sanctuary-free holiday with one of her business associates" a bit earlier than planned given what happened. They were both on speaker phone.

Carolina was on the other end of the line, having just resurfaced from the dive to the colony.

"It was as Simmons already suspected it would be given what Donut had sensed." Her voice sounded stern and even more somber than usual, and Simmons could hear the sound of the waves in the background of the phone call, "All of the people residing in the colony down there are dead. It looks as though some of them might be missing, but I cannot confirm if that is for sure or not." She sighed sadly as she continued, "I just have a feeling that there should be more bodies down there than there actually are given the last population estimates."

"So you suspect that the attacker may have abducted some of them?" Kimball asked, her expression darkening at the thought combined with the knowledge that so many innocent people had died too.

All three of them knew what that most likely meant given past experiences: Hargrove.

During the last week, Simmons had found out that the mysterious Hargrove was also the head of the illegal dealer network for Abnormals that they had freed Bitters, Palomo, and others from in the past.

He was kidnapping Abnormals, selecting those he needed for his studies and selling the rest to gain more profit for himself.

Simmons thrummed on his upper left arm with his right hand's fingers. He had his arms crossed as he listened to Carolina's report silently but growing more and more worried with each passing second.

If Hargrove already was raiding colonies and packs in regions that were notoriously hard to get to, let alone find to begin with, that meant that he must have become extremely advanced in his studies of Abnormals in general and that soon something even worse was most likely going to happen.

Simmons could take a few guesses as to what that might mean, and he desperately wanted to help stop Hargrove before he could be proven right on any of them.

After Carolina hung up, both Kimball and Simmons lapsed into silence. Each of them were pondering over their own troubling thoughts before Kimball straightened her back and turned around in her chair to look at the young wolven sitting beside her.

"What do you think, Simmons?"

It wasn't so much a question than an order given her serious tone.

His expression darkened a notch, "I'm probably thinking more or less the same thing as you. This whole thing screams "Hargrove" to me." Simmons informed her.

"And that guy means huge trouble. I'd rather stop the trouble from escalating before something even worse than this tragedy can happen. Because it's always something horrific when Hargrove digs his fingers into things." His grip around his arms tightened a bit.

Kimball looked back at her computer screen where photos of the colony were visible. They were terrible images of torn bodies and dead people everywhere.

Carolina had made them during her trip to check on the colony with York and had sent them to Kimball's computer when they had resurfaced even before she had called Kimball.

"You're right. We need to find his headquarters before it's too late." she agreed, looking over at Simmons again with a telltale look.

He nodded and left the room with a silent goodbye. Simmons went directly to his room to try and contact his informants on the internet and to try to come up with an algorithm to search the deep and dark sides of the world wide web for even more information on what Hargrove might be up to as well.

He knew what Kimball was planning. They wanted to stop Hargrove before he started something even worse.

They really needed to do something about the guy: he was growing far too dangerous.

While typing up the algorithm, he listened to the news on the TV halfheartedly.

They were saying something about Abnormals attacking normal people and injuring or killing them, robbing stores and people or doing other terrible bullshit.

He didn't give it a second thought though as his concentration was being consumed completely by the program he was currently typing out.

They needed to stop Hargrove from doing whatever he was planning, and they needed to do so extremely quickly in order to stop him before he could put any more of his plan into action.

Simmons could only pray and hope that they would be fast enough to do something about it though if Hargrove really was as advanced in his research as it seemed right now given all of the clues they had already found and put together about the man's terrible actions recently.


	46. Chapter 46

"You are going to wear this emergency button twenty-four seven. Understood?" Kimball told him in a voice that broached no argument.

"Yes, Kimball."

"This emergency tracker will send an SMS to Carolina, Grif, North, York and me when you press the button and we will be there within minutes. Besides that, one of us five will stay within your proximity the whole day since we now know that you are the most wanted target of Hargrove's company."

Simmons nodded again to Kimball's explanation with a sigh.

He knew all that. After all, it had been Simmons himself who had received the information from a whistleblower that he was the most wanted test subject of the bunch from inside the Sanctuary.

"As you now have two abilities, I can understand in a way why Hargrove wants to get his hands on you. But we will do our damnedest to avoid that. For the moment you will stay here in the Sanctuary since we need your knowledge here with our newest guest."

Simmons knew that she meant the harpy-child that had been brought here by her mom before she died. She was anxious and aggressive, understandably having troubles in getting over her mom's death and accepting other people as trustworthy.

"She's still extremely cautious and mistrusting."

Simmons nodded again, putting the tracker in the pocket of his sweater. Around him were North, York, Grif, Carolina, and Kimball. They were all discussing the precautions they had to take from here on out.

About two days ago, Simmons had gotten a mail with a link to a website where he could see a document signed by the top people of Hargrove's company.

Okay, he couldn't be sure entirely where it came from or if it really was from said company, but it was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with that group and so he had immediately informed Kimball about the document.

It was a list, detailing which Abnormals had to be caught for their research.

There was another werecat they should bring in, a Diacom, and a folding human. And along with those names, they also wanted to have him, Richard Simmons, in their control as he was the only known Abnormal who had two abilities.

Being able to turn into a wolven and also to be able to turn invisible made him highly interesting for those guys as he was certainly a special case they could research in order to find out how his genetics ticked.

All of which had led to the situation at hand. The emergency tracker and the twenty-four hour surveillance from his comrades.

Even Grif had to keep an eye on him.

With a deep sigh, the redhead rubbed his forehead.

"Do I have to wear this thing," he patted the spot on his sweater that the emergency sender was in, "for everything? I at least want to go to the shower without having to keep it with me."

Kimball regarded him before answering, "If you don't have the tracker with you, one of the guys or Carolina has to stay outside the shower to make sure nothing will happen."

Simmons managed to bite back a groan.

Perfect. Fucking _peachy_.

"Or Grif can join you in the shower if you would rather prefer that." Carolina joined in, earning a giggle from North and York whilst Grif threw her a withering glare but didn't comment on it otherwise.

Simmons smiled mischievously and answered, "And if he does?"

"Then we would know that you are in safe hands." Carolina definitely meant the phrase to sound like a fucking innuendo and Simmons only shook his head with a sigh. This will be a long and annoying time where he wasn't able to roam around freely.

When he was just Simmons, he would have obeyed every order Kimball or Carolina would give him. But since he was Kiran too, he sometimes tended to forget the obey-the-rules thing. No matter from which Alpha said orders came from.

And he had gotten libertarian. He wanted to have his freedom to walk wherever he wanted to. Okay, when he was together with Grif only it was rather easy to forget that he was under surveillance. But having to keep this stupid tracker with you and always needing someone watching you was awful.

"How many people did you tell about your ability anyway? I mean, Hargrove has to have gotten the information from somewhere." Carolina asked, looking over to Simmons.

"So far, only my pack knows about it and the guys in here." Simmons replied calmly before adding as an afterthought, "Since my change was rather a huge subject here in the Sanctuary, I suspect Tucker knew about it, so his friends outside probably know about it too."

Kimball nodded again and made a short note. This probably was the reason why Hargrove knew about him, thought Simmons. He would have to be extremely cautious until this Hargrove guy was taken down.

Sighing again, Simmons nodded one last time. "Okay. Understood, Kimball. Can we discuss other things now?"

With that, he took out his tablet and let other information and documents from it appear on the table screen before them. It was a table, but at the same time a huge flat screen with touch functions. Rather handy.

"First up is Hera, the Harpy Child," Simmons began, "She's still extremely cautious and dangerous towards me. I suspect her mom having died because of a male's attack is why she's so aggressive towards myself and other men."

Kimball observed him attentively, not saying a word but waiting for his continued explanation, "I suggest that we try to send Sheila in. She's something like the mother figure for a lot of the kids here. She's docile and calm, maybe that can rub off on her."

Kimball nodded before answering, "But you're aware that she's a Minotaur?"

"I know," Simmons acknowledged, "But her temper would fit best to calm Hera down, I think. She's extremely unstable now and we need someone she can bond to. Sheila being something like the mother for a lot of the kids here already is the best fit for this special subject. When she is able to calm Hera down, I think we all will be able to start interacting with her. But right at this moment that's impossible due to her mental and emotional state."

After some minutes of contemplation, Kimball finally nodded. "Okay, please check with Sheila first to see if she is okay with your idea."

Simmons nodded, making a quick note to the document and wiping it off the screen of his tablet.

"Our next topic is the security perimeter. I would recommend increasing it and changing all passwords in an even tighter range of time as Hargrove is becoming extremely aggressive lately and I can't really deny nor confirm any possible future attacks. I think it's better to be safe than sorry."

Kimball quickly discussed something with Carolina before agreeing to that, also ordering Simmons to make a copy of the system and send it to one of their safe places.

"Third point to address is your planned absence. You are going to a congress concerning extinct species together with your politician friend. What was his name again?" Simmons bit his tongue to not say 'boyfriend' although everyone in the room and the Sanctuary knew about her having something going on with him.

"His name is Graham Cover Moll." Kimball replied simply, Simmons frowning a second later.

Something didn't sit right with him about his name. It sounded more like a cover than a real name to him somehow, but Simmons put that thought aside for the moment.

Kimball was the most cautious person he knew usually and he was sure she had checked her friend's background thoroughly before she had decided to start anything with him.

"Okay, Graham Cover Moll," Simmons repeated, making a quick note on his tablet about the name before continuing, "As has been planned, Carolina will take over the general leadership of the Sanctuary during this time. North and York with supervise any outside activities while I will stay inside under surveillance and keep the guests here safe."

Kimball nodded, "Exactly. I am sure you guys can handle thing as the congress might go on a little bit longer than initially thought. Discussing our new arrangements can take longer as politicians aren't known to be readily up for compromises."

The group around Kimball exchanged glances, knowing that her stay in France would take longer anyways as she would spend some time with her boyfriend after the congress. Well, if she was so sure that everything would work out despite what happened the last time and trusted them so readily, they would do their best to keep the Sanctuary running smoothly while she wasn't around.

"The last thing we have to discuss is the sudden outburst of increased resentment that Normals have against us Abnormals." Simmons began, pulling up a variety of articles from magazines around the globe, "The attacks on Abnormals by Normals increased within then month to about one hundred and fifty percent what they had been recording previously and are still rising."

As Simmons continued explaining what was going on, worry lines began showing up on his face, "Many of the arrested attackers insist that they were being attacked by Abnormals first. As the Normals mostly don't know about us, they just placed the blame on people of different ethnicities or cultures attacking them. But seeing through the sheer amount of shit that is going on in these incidents, it's obvious that Abnormals are meant to be their real explanations."

Simmons pulled up another article, "People are attacking others randomly no matter if they're Abnormal or not, but they're definitely on the hunt for others like us. When you ask who started the fight, people often tend to give a very vague description."

Another article showed up, "In the end, the Normals are getting extremely aggressive towards Abnormals and we don't know why this is happening now. But it is and that is making the whole community wary and anxious."

Simmons finished the explanation with a side remark before looking from Carolina to Kimball and back several times, "Even Toby employed an Abnormal friend who looks like a normal human to keep his shop out of the line of fire. The guy is doing all the outside work while he is keeping himself off the radar. The situation has become extremely dangerous."

Both women seemed deep in thought before Kimball spoke up, "I would like you to keep the rooms prepared. If it is really so bad and getting worse, we have to count on the fact that lots of Abnormals will come here. I am also going to ask you to increase the security parameters as previously discussed. Nonetheless, please make sure none of the Abnormals showing up are spies coming from Hargrove."

All of them nodded at her orders, and Kimball continued, "I would like you to give up the rooms not needed in case other rooms are already full. We need to help the people out there. I suspect most of them coming here will be staying until everything has calmed down a bit so that they feel safe leaving again. I would like us to be prepared."

Carolina and Simmons made a short note on each of their tablets before looking up again to listen to Kimball, "I am going to the congress nonetheless as I see that there is a new urgency now more than ever to get people to be concerned with the problem of Normals exterminating everything that isn't normal in their eyes or exploiting it just for mere profit."

Her expression was stern and dark by now, "I trust you to have my back in here. You can always call me, but I would prefer it being only in emergencies."

"Understood." The group answered in unison.

After the meeting, Simmons went to Sheila to check with her concerning Hera.

Much to his good fortune, Sheila immediately agreed to help him out and went down to the heart with him so that Simmons could show her the young harpy's room.

Simmons waited outside while Sheila went in. He would be here in case something was up to help as fast as possible if anything happened.

Sitting at the computer some meters away from young girl's door, he stared at the screen more than actually writing something.

Somehow word had gotten out about his dual ability.

However, that it was because of Tucker wasn't something he could support one hundred percent.

Something was off with this Graham-guy. Simmons couldn't say what it was or why, it was just his instinct getting restless because of him but he couldn't put a finger on it as to why that was. Something was strange.

He pulled up the document where he wrote the name down.

Graham Cover Moll…

Absentmindedly, he began to juggle with the letters, but only got nonsensical answers.

He sighed.

Maybe he was just overreacting because he suddenly was the target of some asshole company who wanted him for genetic research.

Speaking of that…

He quickly went to the laboratory section of the Sanctuary.

Doctor Grey was again merrily dissecting something and Simmons could only hope that it had already been dead.

"Oh hello, Simmons. I am happy you are here!" the doctor greeted Simmons in her creepy voice, "Would you like to join me in my research?"

Gulping, Simmons forced a smile onto his lips. He never had felt comfortable around her, but since she helped him out so much like she did with his burns, he started trusting her and saw her as a friend.

Although she still was batshit crazy.

"Actually, no. I wanted to ask you to take some blood and hair samples for Kimball, you, and me to research. I want to know why I am the only one here who has two abilities and what makes me so special in this case. As well as if it is possible for others to have two abilities." Simmons explained, sitting down on a chair beside a little lab and taking the rubber band to temporarily cut off the blood stream in his right arm.

Dr. Grey's face immediately lit up and she put away her scalpels and other instruments, taking off her gloves.

She babbled while wandering over to the washing basin, "Oh, I see! So you would like to know what makes you so special? I never thought you would come here for that on your own! I was sure Kimball would have to force you to me to do this kind of examination. Okay then, let's start!"

She started picking up syringes and vials, taking blood and hair samples. She even asked him for some of his urine.

With an annoyed face, he complied. He quickly went to the restroom beside the laboratory and brought her the cup back.

Dr. Grey already had put the blood samples on a machine to keep the blood from congealing. The hair was in some cups too, while another part of them were in the dry freezer to keep them from expiring. Some blood was in the dry freezer along with the portion of urine not currently needed too.

When Kimball came back, they would start the examination of the samples to find out what was up.

Returning to the computer, he could hear muffled giggles coming from Hera's room.

It looked like Sheila managed to break the ice.

Sitting down at the computer, he saved the document with the anagrams of Joeser's name and started programming the higher security measurements, including the more frequent change of access codes and a tighter security net.

It took him around two to three hours as those were rather simple actions and the basic programming code was already set up.

When he was done, he again pulled up the document of Joeser, juggling with the letters until Sheila came out and announced that Hera was sleeping but would certainly be hungry for dinner in about three hours.

She would love to accompany Simmons in order to make sure that Hera would learn to recognize him as being okay too.

And that way, she could calm the young harpy down as well in case she would became aggressive towards strangers once more.

They both agreed to come back down here at around half past five again, Simmons organizing food especially set up for young harpies to support their fast development.

Walking up the stairs, he could already hear the loud barking of two wolvens and the half annoyed, half panicked screeches of a bat.

He groaned. No, not again…

He just wanted to run up the streets to berate his pack members, when another idea suddenly came to his mind.

He was a wolven too, so maybe he should every once in a while join in on pack activities his human side was normally so against.

Kiran inside him became restless, wanting to go chase the bat too, which ultimately made Simmons cave in.

Hurriedly, he turned left instead of right, running towards his room to get changed and join his pack.

Not even five minutes later, three wolvens were chasing a completely freaked out bat through the hallways of the Sanctuary with even Grif seeming to have forgotten about his pseudo-fear of bats due to the amount of fun they were having.


	47. Chapter 47

"…immons! Hey! Earth to Simmons! Anyone in there?"

A finger snapping in front of his eyes caused Simmons to startle, blinking in surprise at the dark hand in front of his face.

Lavernius Tucker was sitting on the opposite site of the table, obviously waiting for Simmons to reply.

He again blinked, looking from Tucker to Wash and Grif sitting beside him.

Tucker and Wash looked rather concerned at his unusual absentmindedness, while Grif seemed more keen to drool all over his empty plate while Simmons' was still mostly full.

With a sigh, the redhead shoved the tray over to his mate. This earned a happy whine from the Alpha, which made Simmons' wolven side to have a rather pleased reaction to the whine.

Now back to the other two at the table.

"Sorry, what did you ask?"

Simmons tried to save the situation but only got an annoyed glance from both men on the opposite side of the table. Junior had already left to play with some other kids.

"I asked you several times what's up with you since you're thinking so hard that you even forgot to feed Grif." Tucker replied with a cheeky grin, observing how Grif and Simmons threw him annoyed glares at the commentary.

"I am still thinking about Kimball's boyfriend."

The leader of the Sanctuary already had returned several days ago, but something was still off.

Only days after Kimball returned, he found out the information that he now was one of the largest focuses of Hargrove's attentions and needed special protection.

"What's about him? It isn't like you aren't getting banged enough with this guy here." Tucker motioned mischievously over at Grif at that remark.

Wash subtly tried to elbow Tucker, making it clear that he should stop with this line of conversation. But Tucker only grinned back at him flirtatiously, which made Wash sigh and give up.

With a quick glance to the clock, he got up, "I'm sorry to leave you, but I have to go back to work."

He wished them goodbye, but not without slightly hitting Tucker's shoulder for his comment about not wearing too tight of shorts as he had some plans for today's evening when Wash came back.

With that, Wash was gone in a hurry that Simmons could quite understand given that he and Grif were both wolvens while the other was a werecat. He was only here because of Tucker, after all.

The Incubus again looked expectantly at the redhead. Clearly he still wanted a more serious explanation about Simmons' suspicions towards Kimball's boyfriend despite his joking manner earlier.

Simmons waited some moments longer, choosing his words carefully, "Something just doesn't sit right with me when it comes to Cover Moll. Let's call it my instincts kicking in. Anyway… In any case, I noticed some strange coincidences when it comes to that guy." He explained in a low voice, immediately getting Tucker and Grif's attention.

"Keep this as a secret for now. I am not sure and don't want to meet trouble halfway."

Both nodded, although Simmons wasn't so sure if Tucker could keep his trap shut. At least Wash would know it by later on. Okay, Wash wasn't so bad but _still_.

Sighing heavily, he continued, "Whenever Kimball is with him, something concerning our Sanctuary happens. Like the last time when she was with him, Donut's tribe got wiped out so he's the last one."

He looked over to the dirty blond in the mess hall who seemed as bubbly as ever, but the redhead could see the underlying sadness he still was suffering from due to losing his original family.

"One time, we were assaulted not long after she was on a one-day meeting with him in Washington concerning endangered species," another pause and both of them were watching him even more attentively by this point, "And the most recent coincidence is the most striking. Three days after she came back to the Sanctuary, my informants told me that I am the focus of Hargrove's attention now as I have two abilities."

As Simmons concluded his commentary, he lapsed back into silence and stared down at the empty plate near him since Grif was done cleaning it off by now.

"So are you saying that Kimball could be the news leak too?" Tucker asked, for once being serious and mature instead of always making dumb jokes.

Simmons made a motion between a nod and shaking his head, "I don't know actually. It's just a bit too much of a coincidence to say it's completely random. Besides, I don't want to suspect Kimball for something I don't have any proof of." Simmons explained, playing with the straw in his can.

"A suck-up as always, huh?" Grif stated jokingly beside him, cleaning out the bowl with dessert in it with his finger.

"Shut up, fat-ass. I'm not going to suspect people without having proof!"

"As I said: a suck-up." Grif replied with his teasing grin.

"You guys definitely are bickering like an old married couple. Are you sure you aren't married yet?" Tucker grinned from his side of the table, obviously enjoying listening to their bickering.

"Shut up!" Both wolvens then shot back, making Tucker blink and causing his grin to become even brighter.

"Like I said, an old married couple." Tucker added with another grin before getting up and leaving the table before he would get caught up in the wolvens still bickering to one another about who was a suck-up and who was a fat-ass.

Leaving the mess hall, the incubus went over his room, checking on Junior and making sure he was ready to leave for school in about fifteen minutes. He once again checked the backpack and his clothes, making sure he was ready for the last two hours of school in the afternoon. Afterwards he would return and finish his homework with the other kids who were in the same grade as he was.

It was Friday, and he would be getting a biology test back.

Both Tucker and Wash had studied hard with him as biology wasn't Junior's strong suit.

However, if he received a good mark on his test, Tucker had already promised his son that he could go to a friend's sleepover party on Saturday.

Two months had passed since his last outbreak and Junior had started to control his ability better and better. So Tucker would give him the reward of going over to the friend's if the grade for his biology test was okay.

After Junior left for school, Tucker decided to hit the hay for another three or four hours to be ready for work in the evening since he had to work today.

When Junior came back, Tucker was already up and prepared for work.

He would have to leave in about an hour. That gave him just enough time to say hello to Junior and decide over his mark, and to maybe also welcome Wash if he came back in time and wasn't working overtime again.

Just this once, Tucker hoped he hadn't decided to do so as he wanted Wash to see Junior's grade too. They had both worked diligently with him on biology and Tucker was pretty sure that he would have a good one this time.

Just when he was about to walk over to the study room to search for his kid, he could hear a set of feet trampling down the stairs between him and the study room.

Before he was able to even register what had happened, he felt the known weight of Junior bouncing against his torso and there was a loud squeal that almost deafened him on his left ear.

"Hey, kiddo. How was the test?" Tucker greeted his boy once he let go of his dad.

"I got an A- on it!" Junior proudly showed Tucker the test, and there was indeed a huge A- written on the sheet of paper.

"Fucking awesome! You're the best!"

Junior beamed at his father's praise.

Only moments later, his face turned into a thinking one with the boy looking up at his dad questioningly.

"You still remember what you promised me, Dad?" the boy asked innocently, looking up at the man through his dark curls.

"Of course I do," Tucker made a face as if he was offended that Junior had to ask such a question, "And you totally earned it!"

Junior squealed again, jumping so high that he was almost on eye level with his dad.

Luckily, he didn't transform just then which spoke a lot for his son being able to control his abilities by now.

"But," Junior's face fell when Tucker brought up a condition, "You have to tell Wash, okay? I have to go now and he hasn't returned yet."

He was a bit disappointed by that, but he would let Junior surprise his dad's boyfriend with the mark they had worked so hard on, "I am sure he will be totally happy that you learned so much through studying with him and got such a good mark on the test."

"Sure!" Junior squealed, saying goodbye to his father and running off to his room to put his stuff away as ordered to do by Tucker before going to dinner.

For getting such a good grade, Tucker even agreed for Junior to be allowed to stay up long enough for when Wash would return home and put him to bed.

To make sure that he did not disappoint his son or accidentally get him into trouble, he quickly shot a text to Wash to inform him about Junior being allowed to stay up.

After that, he left the Sanctuary for work.

When Wash returned home from work later than planned, he already knew about Junior being allowed to stay up. While having to wait at a road block because of a serious car crash, he checked his messages and wrote Tucker a confirmation that he received the text and understood.

Upon coming home, he directly went to the shower first as Junior was playing with some of his friends in the Sanctuary and then went to the mess hall.

Junior was allowed to play until eight in the evening, and after that he had to return. Every child had to so long as Kimball was the boss around here – exceptions only being made when a special occasion was taking place.

When Junior returned, Wash was sitting on the couch in his and Tucker's room, looking over a news series about some difficult crimes that had never been solved.

Most of them were never solved because an Abnormal had committed the crime and the Normals couldn't come up with a plausible explanation as to how someone could disappear out of a closed room or something.

Well… Considering that around ninety percent of Normals didn't even know about Abnormals, it wasn't really surprising that they didn't solve these types of cases.

When the door opened, he turned the TV off as Junior shouldn't see this kind of story.

He turned around to face the boy who was now starting to beam and suddenly ran off to his room with a shout that hurt Wash's ears.

Considering that Tucker was allowing Junior to stay up so late, he must have gotten a good mark.

Indeed, when the boy came back with the test, Wash had to smile.

"Excellent work, Junior. I'm proud of you."

Junior's cheeks dusted with a slight shimmer of pink. Wash could only see it because he knew how Tucker blushed too. Wash knew his tells by now.

Looking over the test, he quickly went over the few mistakes that Junior had made to make sure the boy understood what he had done wrong.

When they were through, Wash asked Junior to return the test back to his school materials and to come back to watch some television with him.

They were having a _X-Men_ cartoon marathon on one of the channels on television. Switching to this channel, he waited for Junior to slump down onto the couch beside him to start up the marathon.

When Tucker came back in the early morning hours, he silently entered the room. He expected Junior to be sleeping in his own room and Wash to be asleep rolled up into a furry ball on the foot of his bed.

When they were together, the werecat usually stayed in his human form but when he was alone, for example when Tucker had to work, he often preferred staying in his werecat form to wait until Tucker returned. Then he would change back into a human to spend the remaining hours of the evening together with the Incubus before he again had to get up.

Luckily Tucker rarely had to work on weekends as his boss understood the pressures of him being a single dad and gave him the time he needed to spend with his son.

Upon entering his room, he didn't see Wash lying on his bed, but both his boyfriend and his son sitting on the couch instead.

Junior was curled up beside Wash and the Freelancer had his head resting on the boy's head.

Both of them were sleeping soundly, not even noticing that Tucker had entered the space.

And that meant something in Wash's case as usually the werecat would wake up the moment Tucker entered his room, but this time he seemed so at ease that he slept so soundly and deep that he didn't even notice the Incubus enter.

Silently, he walked over to the sleeping duo and carefully touched Wash's shoulder.

"Wash? It's me, Tucker." the Incubus whispered, observing how the blond slowly came to and seemed to realize where he was.

The television had turned off by itself during the night due to lack of activity, but it didn't seem like either of them had noticed that.

With a yawn, Wash got up and picked Junior up to bring him to his bed while Tucker quickly went to the bathroom to get ready for sleeping. As none of them had anything urgent to do in the morning, they decided to let Junior sleep in and Wash also decided to sleep in just this once.

When Tucker returned, he saw Wash returning from his son's room and closing the door with a small smile on his face.

Tucker never would have imagined it when they had first started dating, but during the time they were together Wash had become a great dad for Junior.

And Tucker knew that Junior wouldn't want Wash to leave now as well. He would have a fit if Tucker should ever separate from Wash.

The Incubus was pretty sure that he would have to make an arrangement with Wash so that both of them could see the kid regularly should they ever separate.

Mentally he shook his head at that troubling thought in an attempt to dispel it from his mind completely.

They wouldn't part now as Wash had bonded strongly to the Incubus even from the very beginning. And if there was _ever_ something akin to bonding in terms of the Incubi, Tucker was quite positive by this point that he strongly bonded to Wash too.

They were stuck together for the long haul now, through and through.

Slipping under the covers, the Incubus waited for the werecat to also slip under the covers together with him.

When Wash was settled in, Tucker slipped over and leaned up to kiss his boyfriend.

He could feel Wash returning the kiss, obviously without even giving it a second thought. With a grin and a pleased sigh, Tucker intensified the pressure of his lips against Wash's, licking over the werecat's bottom lip to ask for entrance.

When Wash granted it, Tucker let his tongue slip into his mouth, nudging Wash's tongue to ask him for a tongue dance.

Some moments later they had to part to breathe, but Tucker only waited long enough for them to get enough oxygen in before once again closing the gap between them, grabbing Wash's shirt to pull him in even closer.


	48. Chapter 48

Grif would have loved to cry, to just fucking sit down and cry.

He usually wasn't the type to lose his calm and to start crying, but right now he felt like he had the right to do exactly that despite his image of being a lazy fat-ass who did not care about others.

Pacing in his and Simmons' room, he felt like laying waste to the whole room. This was the second dominant feeling of his human side.

His wolven side, however, pressed against his cage, trying to get out. It was trying to get Grif to change, to run the fuck outside and search for whoever did that to Simmons. For however did that to his mate.

Grif exhaled shakily, making a noise which sounded oddly familiar to a wolven's whine, combing his fingers through his thick, unruly black hair. He definitely felt like crying or thrashing something. Or doing both at the same time.

In the end, he restrained himself from doing either as he didn't want to thrash something since he knew he would get hounded by Simmons when he got back. If he ever did come back.

Grif shook his head. He would come back. Even if that meant he would have to dive into a fire for him.

Snatching Simmons' tablet, he left their shared room and he went directly to the situation room located close by Kimball's office. Without bothering to knock on the door, he entered and looked at the group inside the space when he entered it with a somewhat defiant expression.

Neither of the guys said anything about his abrupt entrance, as obviously everyone had already been informed about what had happened.

Simmons had been asked by the local shelter to check on a cat behaving strangely. She was still a kitten, but already bigger than any normal kitten should be.

Arriving there together with Grif and Carolina, he checked on the kitten.

It didn't take long for him to realize why she was behaving so strange. She was coming from a feral cat colony, which was rather dangerous. What made the whole mix even more dangerous was the fact that the kitten was actually a werecat that had obviously been abandoned by her parents.

Judging by how she looked and some of the story they were able to get from the shelter, she was the only one left of the litter as the others had died in a fire.

So besides having a feral, barely socialized werecat on their hands, this kitten was extremely anxious and aggressive at the same time on account of what she had gone through.

Simmons decided to take the kitten with him to the Sanctuary.

Grif and Carolina knew that he would ask Wash to take care of the little fellow. They would contact him on the way back.

Putting the cat in a transportation box was Carolina's task as wolvens and cats don't mix too well, as Grif took over the task of bringing her out in the box to his beat-up old truck.

He had some troubles as the kitten suddenly started to freak out in its box and almost trashed it. Grif chalked it up on the stench of wolvens being pretty overwhelming in the car. He decided to open a window and then went back to check on the others.

What he saw then when he came back made his heart stop and made him want to cry or thrash something like he did now.

Carolina was lying on the ground with a very large wound to her head. Someone must have hit her with something heavy and very huge. She was bleeding pretty badly, but the wound had already started closing up again.

When she came to only minutes later, they both immediately were up and searching for the redhead, although Grif mostly relied on his nose to find his mate. But the trace ended smack dab in the middle of the road behind the animal shelter.

Which meant only one thing: they had gotten him.

He growled, feeling anger surge up inside him.

Walking back to Carolina as she called him, he jumped into the truck and wanted to follow the car containing Simmons but he knew that Carolina was right when she said that they had to go back and they needed to set up a plan, otherwise he would get himself into danger too.

Back at the Sanctuary, Carolina ordered Grif to stay in their room, but he couldn't stay there for a long time. It reminded him too much of Simmons and made the wolven inside him move even more frustrated, wanting nothing more than to go out and search for his mate.

In terms of a wolven he was still so young! He was practically a baby still! He shouldn't be left alone!

During such a time he needed a more experienced wolven, preferably his mate, to guide him through whatever wolven society might throw at him!

And here he was now, setting Simmons' laptop down on the table of the situation room.

"I don't care what you are saying. He's my mate and nothing in hell will keep me from helping here and coming with you."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Even if it meant him having to chew through any chain or door they put between him finding and getting back his mate!

All eyes were on him when he opened the computer and started it up.

"I can understand your wish, but nonetheless I must ask you to follow our lead. Otherwise I won't allow you to join us." Kimball stated beside him.

Grif scoffed, focused on the screen, "Whatever."

Kimball seemed to have taken this as an affirmative response and continued looking at the screen herself.

"You took Simmons laptop?" she asked him, "May I ask what you expect to find from that?""

Grif stared at the password he had to enter.

A password.

As it was Simmons, he suspected it would be a nonsensical combination or words, signs, and numbers.

"Simmons was working on something. The name of your boyfriend made alarm bells ring for him for some reason." He told her, thinking of how to figure out the password.

Simmons was pretty contrary in some points. He was complicated but also rather simple when it came to certain things. Okay, he would never be so dumb as to use a simple password, but maybe it wasn't something nonsensical and instead was something not everyone could guess so easily because they didn't know about its personal connotations to him.

Like… Like their wolven names!

Immediately, he typed in the name of Simmons' wolven side. Kiran.

Failure.

Two more attempts.

Kai's wolven name. Zajora.

Failure.

One attempt left.

Okay, then it was his wolven name. Which was rather logical given that Grif was Simmons' mate.

He entered Rokash and in the next second the well-known turning wheel of Windows showed up, signaling that he had indeed entered the right password.

Kimball was beside him and was looking at the screen too. She seemed rather surprised that Grif had managed to find out Simmons' password.

Feeling her glance on him, he muttered, "Don't ask me how I knew that."

Kimball nodded before adding, "What were those names you typed in anyways?"

Grif made a face before answering in a voice that was as low as possible so that only Kimball could hear him, "Our wolven names."

Kimball looked rather surprised, but didn't say a word as Grif now found the document he had been searching for and pulled it up.

It was a document in which Simmons had mindlessly rearranged the letters of a name again and again:

 _Graham Cover Moll_

 _Mach Molar Grovel_

 _Chloral Gram Move_

 _Clam Glamor Hover_

 _Havoc Gramme Roll_

 _A Larch Grovel Mom_

 _A Gravel Color Hmm_

 _Larvae Clog Ohm Mr_

 _Alga color Rev Hmm_

 _Carver All Goo Hmm_

 _Larch Velar Go Mom_

 _…_ _._

They were browsing through different rearrangements with Grif scrolling down to the bottom of the document. What they saw there made deadly silence fall in the room.

 _…_

 _Calm Glamor Hover_

 _Carolla Hmm_ _Grove_

 ** _Malcolm Hargrove_**

It was so absolutely silent in the room just then that you would have heard someone dropping a pin in it. Even the table with the integrated touchscreen seemed to have reduced its level of noise when the final rearranged name showed up.

The first one to speak was Grif: "Well, that would explain where the leak in the Sanctuary was coming from."

"I… I didn't know that he was him." Kimball whispered, her voice rising slightly in pitch while her face was the picture of complete and thorough shock.

"It looks like it wasn't only you who got fooled." Grif quietly replied, remembering a certain situation at Simmons' promotion party after his second summa cum laude.

A guy had appeared claiming to be the secretary of this Graham guy and had offered Simmons a job. It would have been a top-paying position and everything, but Simmons had declined.

As he had told Grif later, his instincts had told him not to accept the offer.

Now Grif had to admit that Simmons' instincts had been awesome even with him not having been a wolven back then.

Rubbing his hands over his face, he sighed, "Okay, so what are we going to do now that we know who the leak is?"

Carolina cleared her throat, making herself known for the first time since Grif had come in here. Previously she had been in the background of the space with York trying to silently comfort and reassure her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"How about we ambush this guy? He doesn't know that we know who he is, so you could phone him and tell him that Simmons was taken." She suggested, looking over to Kimball, "We will set up a trap and a trace device. Beyond that, you could try to get any information on where Simmons could possibly be through conversing with him too."

In lack of other options, Kimball was by her phone in her office about half an hour later with the rest of the team still in the situation room and listening to what was spoken on the line. They all were pretty positive that Hargrove wouldn't give up his fake game just to be able to get some more Abnormals in his hands. Not when there were some species living here who were some of the last of their kinds now.

Like Hera, Bitters, Palomo, Donut…

At least, it wasn't known of too many other individuals of their peoples who were still alive anymore.

They could hear Malcom picking up the phone on his end and answering it with, "Graham."

Grif growled, knowing that the guy wouldn't be able to hear him. Carolina shot him a warning glare nonetheless.

"Graham. I am terribly sorry to disturb you despite your busy schedule. I just needed someone to talk to." Kimball played the desperate leader role perfectly.

"Vanessa? What happened?" Graham played his role well too, sadly.

"You remember how one of my closest friends has two abilities?" Kimball prompted.

"You mean the man who is able to turn invisible and could also turn into a wolven?"

"Exactly." Kimball took a deep breath, "He was kidnapped today. He was fucking captured and I don't know where he is! He just vanished without a trace!" She acted like she was going to be freaking out within the very next minute or so.

"Vanessa, calm down. I am sure he's okay." Graham tried to calm her down.

This fucker knew exactly where he was and was playing games with them!

Grif's face darkened, feeling the wolven growl inside him.

Carolina made a motion with her hand nearby him that they had tracked the guy, and when looking on the screen Grif could see that he was just in one of the business buildings in the center of the city.

"I don't know where he is. You know about Hargrove and what I told you. I am so afraid that he fell into his hands! That he will get tortured for whatever intel Hargrove wants from him!"

Kimball should get a fucking Oscar for her acting.

"Kimball, calm down. I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he's visiting someone. That Erdéli, Erdàli or whoever he is called that you once told me about." Grif perked up at that bit of information.

Simmons didn't have a friend called Erdéli. That wasn't even remotely close to the name of one of his friends. Okay, Sarge was of the Areeli-Clan of Diacoms but that wasn't even remotely close still!

Alarmed, he looked to Carolina who quickly said something to York.

Said person simply vanished through the floor and disappeared off to wherever Carolina had sent him.

Grif's attention was on the phone call again.

Kimball sounded rather at ease, or rather was playing herself out as though she was starting to calm down a bit, "You think? And then he will return?"

Grif snatched up the laptop again, suddenly having a feeling that this thing would be able to help them some more.

Somewhere hidden in a folder called "Grif" he found something called TrackmewhenImgone.

That fucking asshole!

Opening the tool, he listened to the good-byes and shit only haphazardly while the tool started doing something that Simmons had obviously already programmed weeks ago when he had learned that he had become a person of interest for Hargrove.

The door opened and Kimball came in, followed by York along with the two vampires, Alpha and Epsilon.

Returning to Carolina's side, York announced unnecessarily. "I got them. Though why you needed them in particular is beyond me."

Carolina shot him a warning glare, looking to the vampires, "You two have lived the longest here, even longer than Kimball. Ever heard of Erdéli?" she asked them.

The two looked at them quickly before Alpha replied, "It's the Hungarian Name for Transylvania. The original home of the vampires."

"Although I don't suspect they would bring him to Hungary after taking him. Too much of a hassle, actually to move this asshole." Epsilon spoke up. This brought him a deathly angry glare by Grif.

"That's a pretty logical assessment." Carolina replied, a thoughtful expression crossing over her features.

"Is there any other possibility?" Grif asked almost anxiously, "Maybe something named after that?"

Carolina shook her head, "There's nothing I can recall on either Erdéli or Transylvania."

Grif looked over to Kimball, but she was shaking her head too.

Epsilon then spoke up again, "I don't know if it helps, but Erdéli has other names too. Ardeal, Siebenbürgen, or Siweberjen."

"What did you say?" Something about what he had said caught Kimball's attention and obviously strung some kind of chord of familiarity inside of her.

"What do you mean?" Epsilon asked, a bit confused by her reaction and looking away when he wasn't able to meet her intense stare.

"The last name you gave for Erdéli." She replied, her body almost trembling from the sudden energy.

"Siweberjen. Why?" Epsilon replied, confused and insecure.

Beside him, Alpha raised an eyebrow and also looked rather confused.

"There's a valley outside Atlanta in the countryside. It's not really known because lots of people here avoid it since there's a legend about a tribe of Native Americans having been slaughtered there." Kimball explained, starting to pace up and down.

The laptop made a beeping sound, and Grif turned his head around to check on it.

"As far as I know, it is called a certain name because the ground there soaked up the blood from the massacre like a vampire would. This alley is called the Valley of—"

"Siweberjen." Grif and Kimball said in unison.

The beeping sound had been from the tracking tool. It had found Simmons, and Hargrove obviously hadn't found the tracker until now.

Simmons' last position was at the entry to this valley.

"But this is strange." North spoke up just then, "I thought this valley is deserted? Even more when you look on the map." He pulled up the map tool from the internet and zoomed into the valley.

It was empty, save for a street going through it.

"There's simply nothing." North finished his explanation.

Kimball pointed to a point almost in the middle of the map, where a massive rock wall was visible, "Here should be the entrance to a cave." she remarked.

Carolina stared at the map, before saying what made everything fall into place, "Then there must be some kind of concealment to hide the entrance. As everyone has already seemed to have forgotten about this valley, it wouldn't take much effort to hide something that almost nobody remembers."

With her statement, all eyes landed on Kimball who was standing there with a dark expression on her face at the newest revelations that had been place before.

"We're setting up a strategy and an army, and we're getting Simmons back." She stated firmly, "I'm done playing nice. This means war."


	49. Chapter 49

When Carolina came back from the meeting at the situation room, she whirled around and hit the wall beside the door.

She hit it again and again, causing the wood to splinter and crack under the ferocity of her hits.

That was until someone carefully grabbed her hands.

"Stop that, you're hurting yourself."

It was York's voice, calmingly and soothingly talking to her. That made her anger subside a bit, enough to not make her want to hit the wall anymore.

Without any resistance she let herself be pulled over to the bed and get pressed down onto it so that she would sit on it.

"I'm coming back in a sec. Just wait here, okay?"

Carolina nodded jerkily and stayed there as asked until York returned.

He sat down beside her and carefully grabbed her hands. Slowly, he started to pull out the splinters of wood with a tweezer. When he was done, he started to disinfect the wounds and carefully wrapped her hands up in bandages after putting on ointment.

"Turn around. Let me see your head." He ordered calmly, waiting for her to turn around. When she did, she could feel him moving her hair aside and checking the wound. It had already started closing up, but he disinfected it nonetheless.

She could inform him that she wouldn't get an infection or anything due to her being a Phoenix, but doing so had already proved futile several times since he wouldn't listen and wanted to look after her anyway.

On the other hand, it was nice to have someone who would pamper you, look after you, and treat you like you were their biggest treasure they could have. So she decided to keep silent and let him pamper her.

However, it also didn't feel right. Not when someone had gotten taken because she had failed to protect them.

It had been her task assigned by Kimball to keep an eye on Simmons and to protect him in case someone attacked him, but she had allowed the enemy to knock her out and capture Simmons.

 _She remembered Simmons whipping around, staring at a point behind her, as if he had smelled something._

 _He had opened his mouth to say something, but Carolina wasn't able to hear what it was he said. She was already feeling sharp pain exploding in her head and then everything went dark._

 _When she came to again, she first felt horrible pain and then the adrenaline surging in her bloodstream when she realized what just happened._

 _But instead of finding Simmons, there was Grif standing there with worry plastered all across his face._

 _Simmons was gone. Taken._

 _When she should have been watching out for him, which she failed—_

"Stop berating yourself up. You did what you could. Nobody could have thought that this was an ambush." York's soft voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"I should have known. I should have been watching out better." She gritted out between her clenched teeth.

"You did what you could, stop beating yourself up. You couldn't have done anything else against it." York returned, making her turn back around to face him, "Sometimes there are things you cannot change, but you can help us get him back and then apologize to him."

Carolina sighed extremely frustrated, "I should have done better. I am the leader of the military squad here, like when we were back in the Project."

Slowly, York started to understand that this wasn't only because of Simmons' disappearance. It was also because of what had happened in the Project.

 _She had been leader back then too and they had been sent on various missions. Carolina was leading the mission, but the other members often were chosen by their abilities and their knowledge._

 _It was she who had been leading the mission when York lost his left eye. It was her leading the mission when North had been shot, only surviving because he managed to stop the bullet with his telekinetic ability before reaching his internal organs._

 _She had been the leader at the top of the scoreboard and of the teams whenever shit hit the fan._

 _It had been because of Maine. It was the day when it was announced that a new member would be joining their ranks, but this member never actually showed up._

 _York didn't remember what it was, but Maine suddenly freaked. He was a Fire Elemental like Caboose, although was able to control his ability better than him._

 _He guessed it was because he was forced by the Director into hand-to-hand combat against Wyoming, an Icical. They're something like ice wizards or witches who are able to control ice and are also able to turn completely into ice._

 _This matchup, however, caused Maine to go completely crazy. The happenings of before had made the beast of a man become rather mentally unstable, and the Director breaking the rules and bringing archenemies together made him freak out completely._

 _In a devastating fit of rage, he made the underground bunker collapse. York had last seen him dying under a pile of rubble, having been frozen previously by Wyoming._

 _Carolina had been trying to desperately save everyone, but in the end she was only able to save York, North, and herself._

 _She had been devastated at first. These memories were obviously coming up again given how the situations were almost similar. She had lost a member of her team during a 'mission' that she had been declared the leader of._

 _Months later after arriving here at the Sanctuary, she had found Wash and at first was extremely ecstatic since if Wash had survived, there might be other Freelancers who had also done so._

 _In the end, the outcome of that had been Wash joining everyone here at the Sanctuary. He had gotten pretty used to the Sanctuary by now, and had obviously also found his mate although York seriously had to ask himself if his friend hadn't hit his head when he got involved with Tucker of all people._

 _But thinking on it, it was rather obvious. They fit together pretty well. They completed each other._

York sighed, "I guess I know where you are coming from, but this really isn't your fault, Carolina." He took her face in his hands and looked her in the eye with a stern expression, "You weren't responsible back then. That was the Director's fault and it doesn't matter that you are family. You are different."

He made sure Carolina got that point before he continued.

"And it isn't your fault that this happened. They set up an ambush neither of us could have seen coming in a thousand years. They wanted to have Simmons and when they want someone, they get them. So the only thing we can do is to direct our anger towards the assholes who kidnapped our awesome invisible wolven." York flashed her a broad grin, trying to reassure her.

"I already told you that you are the best leader I could imagine. You have been the best and you always will be the best. You might be a hard-ass," Carolina shot him an angry glare, but didn't comment otherwise, "But you're the fairest leader I have ever got to know. You never asked something of us you couldn't do yourself besides our specialties."

Carolina was quiet. She didn't say anything in response and just sat there.

"You're okay the way you are. Stop berating yourself."

Leaning in, he pressed his lips against hers and soon felt her responding to the kiss.

It wasn't new that they kissed as they already had several times, but it still felt new and refreshing to the ghost whenever they did.

It always made clusters of butterflies fly in his stomach and made a smile appear on his lips. His head felt like it was swimming from pure happiness.

When they separated, York pulled her into a hug, keeping her close.

"You are good the way you are. It's better to direct this anger and all those feelings towards the guy responsible for all of this shit. And with that I mean the Project as well as what happened to the Sanctuary and to Simmons." he told her, "This all happened because of Hargrove. And he is going to pay for that."

After some moments, he felt Carolina nod and her posture relaxed. Her embrace tightened a bit.

"Thanks, York. For being here for me." she muttered into his crook of his neck.

York smiled, placing a kiss on her temple, "You're welcome. Anytime."

He let them fall on the bed, muttering, "Let's get some rest and then plan out our attack tomorrow. It's time that he can't fool and bait us anymore with smaller sites. It's time to go for the real thing."

Carolina nodded, but started to free herself from York's embrace.

"Let me have a shower though. My hair is still full of blood from before."

A bit reluctantly, York let go of her and took the opportunity to get changed in his room although he would take his clothes for the next couple of days directly over to Carolina's.

While he heard the shower running in the bathroom connected to her room, he put the clothes on the chair beside the desk and carefully made sure that his underwear was hidden under his wide shirt.

Wearing a white shirt with tan highlights and the same colored sweat shorts, he let himself slump onto the bed with a pleased sigh, waiting for Carolina to return. It took some minutes more for Carolina to get dried up and put some body lotion on.

When she returned, however, her hair smelled of her peach shampoo and her body of grapefruit. He could smell it when she sat down beside him.

She was taking off the ring she wore on a necklace. This was her mom's ring that she had received as a gift for her prom night, shortly before she had died in a military battle and her ruby was destroyed as her mother had been a Phoenix too.

After that, she leaned down and York didn't hesitate to embrace her again, responding eagerly to the kiss she initiated this time.

Sneaking his arms around her waist, he pulled her even closer only to pull her atop of him moments later.

She complied without any hesitation, deepening the kiss a bit more.


	50. Chapter 50

When Simmons came to, he felt a heavy headache pound behind his eyes. With a groan, he pressed his eyes shut.

When had it become a habit that he would wake up on a regular basis with a heavy pounding headache raging behind his eyes!?

But… There was something wrong. This didn't smell like his home or the Sanctuary at all.

Opening his eyes, he could see gray walls surrounding him that were only interrupted by a huge gray door.

He could see that there was a window in the upper part of the steel door, but it was way too small to get through.

There was a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling, giving off enough light so he could see his surroundings cast in shadows.

What he registered next was that he was being held upright. And that he couldn't move.

He was strapped on a stretcher being held upright, although a bit tilted to the back so he could lie halfway comfortable.

Trying to move, he noticed that he couldn't. He was tied down and absolutely immobile. And that made panic surge up in him.

Closing his eyes, he managed to calm himself down. There was no time to panic and he needed to keep himself as clear minded as possible in his head so that he could figure out a way out of here. He _needed_ to get out.

Kiran inside him shifted restlessly, making a low whining sound. Simmons could understand how he felt.

They were separated from Grif, or Rokash in Kiran's case, and that made them both restless. They didn't want to be separated from their mate and they wanted to go back, to leave this horror.

Only they knew that they couldn't leave and that Simmons was currently tied down on a fucking stretcher. Not to mention that he didn't even fucking know where he was. He could be on the other side of the world by now!

Simmons sighed. He couldn't freak out now, he had to keep calm.

Since he hadn't known where the leak was but had his suspicions, he went to Doctor Grey and asked her for a favor. With her help, they implanted another tracker underneath his left shoulder blade. It was hidden there and not immediately visible on an X-Ray.

The pain in his right upper arm made it pretty clear that they had cut out the tracker Kimball had implanted there. So it was most likely this Graham guy his instincts had warned him about when he first heard of him.

He bit his lip. He only hoped Grif was smart enough to check his laptop and find the program hidden there. He had even changed his password to Rokash so Grif would have easy access to the laptop without it being too obvious that he already planned that.

Hopefully the new tracker was accurate enough to find him.

He closed his eyes again, exhaling slowly. He felt anxious and nervous, but at the same time a strange calm overcame him. He would get through whatever he would have to face here and return to Grif. He would make his mate proud and not freak out over whatever occurred here.

But… How did he come here, actually?

 _He remembered that they had been in the animal shelter and had found a completely squalid and barely socialized werecat there. After a short examination, he decided to take her to the Sanctuary and decided that he would ask Wash to help him get the girl properly raised. Having a werecat help to raise another werecat was definitely the best idea._

 _Grif had taken the box and had gone to his truck with it while he and Carolina went to the entrance of the shelter to fill in the forms for the people who worked there when he suddenly noticed an odd smell._

 _He couldn't say what it was, but it had immediately put him on alarm. Whipping around, he looked to the wall behind Carolina but couldn't see anything._

 _That was until Carolina's head suddenly jerked forward and she fell to the ground with the sound of a deflating tire._

 _Carolina hadn't even hit the ground when he felt a strong grip around his throat and then something was pressed onto his mouth and nose._

 _The horrible sweet stench had his brain unnecessarily inform him that it was chloroform._

 _His last thought was of Grif before his whole world went blank._

The redhead suspected that he had been unconscious for several hours before coming to again in this little room without any windows but about three cameras to observe him.

He could already tell what they were trying to see. Him turning invisible or into a wolven, or both. Well, he wouldn't give that to them. He went through far worse shit than this and he wouldn't break here.

The clicking sound of the door made him open his eyes. While the door opened, he put on a neutral mask although his eyes showed his anger pretty clearly.

Three doctors entered the room with what appeared to be a whole army of assistants in tow, carrying tons of different instruments for surgical examinations.

Simmons gulped. He didn't want to freak out, but not doing so was going to become extremely intense and difficult to pull off considering what they seemed to be planning on doing to him.

Keeping his neutral mask, he looked at them with a raised eye brow.

"What's that for?" He asked in an almost bored tone, just like how Grif would ask something when he didn't really give a fuck about what was going on.

"We would like to conduct some tests on your unique DNA structure." One of the docs started, obviously the head one of the trio.

Yeah, _we_ would like to. It's more like Simmons didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

"After the tests are done, we want to cure you." the doctor continued, obviously not having noticed Simmons' train of thoughts.

"I'm not sick." the wolven retorted, staring at the doctor taking out a belt and a needle. He was obviously preparing to take some blood samples.

"Of course you are. This abnormal mutation of your DNA, even more in your case due to the double mutation, has to be researched to heal all people suffering under this mutation." The doctor explained with fake patience.

The wolven actually wanted to reply with something to that, but soon noticed that it would be of no avail. The doctors thought of him as being sick and him trying to convince them otherwise wouldn't help a bit.

Looking down, he could see how a third vial was filled with blood. They wouldn't find something besides what was already known there.

Usually, all abilities were equal to each other. Which means that when you have an ability and start getting another, the previously achieved ability would vanish if the new ability wasn't an advancement of the first one. For example, when being a telepath and starting to become an empath, the telepathic abilities would start becoming less until they completely vanished. If you start having telekinetic traits, which is an advancement of telepathy, however, you would keep your telepathic abilities.

To make things even more complicated, the Wolven and Vampire DNA seemed to be the two dominant abnormalities. It is said that Wolvens and Vampires existed before other traits started to make their presence known. So it was pretty likely that people showing any kind of Abnormal traits had either Vampire or Wolven DNA hidden somewhere in their DNA structure.

Anyway, as these two were dominant there were two possibilities. Either you lose the previous ability like with the other abilities or, if you have an extremely adaptable DNA code and body which is rather rare, it happened that you could keep the less dominant ability besides the Wolven or Vampire DNA. But this mostly only happens when you already have such a trait in your DNA.

So Simmons having both abilities was rather rare. He had an adaptable body and DNA, and had wolven DNA in his own DNA structure from somewhere down the line in his family tree due to events that probably happened at some point during the time his family had immigrated to America.

Simmons scoffed. "I won't allow you to take away my wolven side or my invisibility!"

He tried discussing things from another angle.

This time the doctor laughed. He fucking _laughed_!

"Who said we wanted to cure your Abnormal side?" the glee was obvious in his eyes and his voice.

The redhead felt his blood run cold. They didn't want to take away his wolven side or his invisibility, they wanted to 'cure' his human side. They actually wanted to separate his human side from his Abnormal side!

Breathing deeply in and out, Simmons desperately tried to calm down to not freak out in the next minute and play into their hands.

The vial with his blood was detached from the little hose connected to the needle. Instead of another vial as Simmons suspected they might use, there came one of the syringes and a strange golden-yellow liquid.

This soon disappeared in his arm. What the hell did they give him anyway?

It only took him minutes to realize what they actually gave him when Kiran started moving and wanted to break to the surface.

Simmons ground his teeth, trying to keep Kiran inside and to just not turn. He wouldn't give them shit about his second nature. He was determined to stay human and not show his other side when being here or help them achieve their goals.

The doctors, however, didn't look so happy at his defiance, as the doctor ordered another syringe and a third, increasing his stress level to unknown heights.

Kiran was screaming in agony by now, biting around himself in sheer pain, blinded by said emotion completely.

Simmons gritted his teeth until he could hear them creak. He wouldn't let Kiran appear and let them have their will, he needed to stay human and stay visible!

Another syringe made Kiran roar up, Simmons' jaw and ears temporarily turning into those of a wolven.

"It is okay to turn, don't fight against it." the doctor tried to reassure Simmons.

The wolven, however, answered this phrase with a withering glare out of golden green eyes. They were a blend of his and Kiran's eyes.

The doctor took a step back, as if he was afraid Simmons would bite his head off in the next second. He ordered the assistants to use the last syringe on him. Simmons gritted his teeth so hard his jaw muscles were both numb and hurt like hell by now.

He wouldn't give in. He wouldn't turn. Neither one way or the other!

After minutes of agony, the doctor called it a day and left him alone as another syringe would be too dangerous for his circulatory system at this point.

As they still needed him for tests, which meant that they needed him as living sample giver, they would leave it at that for today and continue when the liquid was completely out of his system.

Which would probably be in about three days, thought the wolven. So he had some quiet.

There was another syringe coming up to be injected, before the needle was pulled out. The wound would heal up in some minutes anyway so he didn't really care about it.

When he started feeling drowsy he asked Kiran to keep in the background and not give them shit on their trait before he dropped off completely. Hopefully Kiran would keep quiet inside and he wouldn't turn invisible.

When he woke up next, he was lying on a mattress under a thin sheet that didn't really help him feel any warmer. Indeed, he felt fucking cold and a headache was again pounding behind his eyes.

But he couldn't give up. He survived the first run of tests and he would the next too.

Determined, he opened his eyes and gulped down the contents of his stomach wanting to come up just then.

He felt miserable, and not only because of the drugs that he had been injected with in such short intervals.

He felt miserable because he wasn't around Grif.

Kiran inside him whimpered at that thought. He missed him too.

Getting up, he forced himself to drink half of the bottle of water standing there, rationing the rest until he again would get some water. Beside that was some bread. He ate some of it, just to make sure he wouldn't starve.

He _couldn't_ starve now, since he wanted to get back to Grif someday soon. Rather sooner than later.

Sitting down on the mattress, he again could feel Kiran shift uncomfortably.

This caused him to realize something was strange for him. He still thought of Kiran as being something foreign to him.

But that wasn't true. Kiran was him and he was Kiran, just different.

Of course, he did know that turned ones tend to have their minds separated where purebloods don't really distinguish between their human and wolven side. They worked as a unit.

Thinking of the test he had to go through, he noticed for the first time that he and Kiran weren't a unit as he always thought them to be. They were still working against each other, trying to win the control over this body to live up to their own individual instincts and expectations.

Taking another gulp of water, he closed the bottle and then lied down on the mattress, covering himself with the blanket and looking up to the ceiling.

When would Grif and the others find out where he was? When would they come?

For Simmons it wasn't a matter of _if_ but of _when_ they would come.

Closing his eyes, Simmons decided not to sleep, but started to try to achieve something else.

He still hadn't fully explored all the corners of his soul and it was about fucking time to get that done.

Breathing in before slowly letting out his breath, Simmons again managed to get into the state of meditation where he would be able to fully concentrate on his soul instead of always being so high strung and not be able to listen to what his soul had to tell him.

That maybe was a reason too why he couldn't relax. He didn't listen to his soul often enough. Or he did it only when it fit in his narrow view of his world.

He needed to enlarge his horizon and start to involve every part of his soul more into his life. Sure, it was a lot more difficult than just living on how he was used to but it was possible.

And if he wanted to increase his chances to get out of here psychically as well as physically safe and sound he would need to grab every chance he could get.


	51. Chapter 51

_Simmons was screaming. He was fucking screaming!_

 _Tied down on a stretcher, not being able to move while some crazy doctors had cut his abdomen open and were rummaging around in his insides, pulling out different organs they thought could be interesting._

 _What wasn't interesting was shoved back carelessly into his body, not really caring about where the organs actually went._

 _Blood was splattered everywhere and Simmons was still screaming his lungs out. He was screaming so loud it hurt and his head was thrashing around from pure agony._

 _One of the doctors pulled out Simmons' beating heart, shortly examining it. He discussed it with the doctors beside him and both shook their head._

 _But instead of putting the heart back, the doctor simply squished it with some kind of inhuman force. The screaming got even worse, increasing with the force put on the heart._

 _Then the heart suddenly imploded and blood splattered out of the life-giving organ, and Simmons' screaming suddenly stopped with his mouth hanging open and his eyes turning lifeless and milky._

Grif shot up with a shout of Simmons' name. He sat on the bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

Those pictures of Simmons…

When those pictures came back to his mind, he was awake fully and they made him fling back the blanket and make a run for the toilet.

Minutes later, he was out of the bathroom again and freshly showered but still anxious and shaken.

Fuck, even his hands trembled and he still felt like crying. It wasn't the first of those nightmares he had since his mate disappeared, but it was by far the worst.

Grif only hoped that his dream wouldn't come true. He _didn't_ want it to come true!

He stood in the middle of the room, not feeling well at all. Rokash was shifting, feeling as anxious as Grif was.

Slipping out of his clothes, he let Rokash take over. The wolven needed time 'outside' to calm down again.

The wolven left their room, his claws clicking horribly loud on the floor. It sounded like the ticking of seconds on a clock, indicating the time running through their fingers like sands in an hour glass.

Arriving at a door, he sat down in front of it, whining lowly and scratching at the door.

Sure, he knew that Kimball didn't like him or others scratching at the door like that, but he couldn't help himself now. He felt so goddamn anxious! He felt like a ball of nerves and anxiousness.

It took some painful moments where he had to wait outside whining again and again, scratching at the door until he heard shuffling behind it.

When it opened, he could see a rather rumpled Sister, having dark rings under her eyes as did he, hair sticking out in every direction possible and her face looking wrinkled from sleep.

"What?" she grumbled, looking down to her brother.

He was sitting there like a picture of misery. He had his ears flat on his head, shoulders slumped, head hanging, and he was whining lowly.

He was trembling slightly and looking thoroughly miserable and bad.

Sister sighed.

"Come in." she muttered, stepping aside for Grif to shuffle inside.

The Hawaiian girl closed the door behind him, starting to slip out of her clothes.

She didn't need to ask what happened. Grif's mate had disappeared and he was having horrible nightmares every single fucking night, and so he would come over almost every night.

Kai didn't mind it, she knew she would be the same if she ever had a mate and that mate disappeared, or even worse was taken like Simmons was.

When Zajora was turned completely, she walked over to Rokash. He was standing there, tail hanging low as well as his head.

It was unusual for her to see her brother so miserable.

Usually he was the confident and dominant leader of their pack, leading them just perfectly despite his young age. Both Simmons and Kai followed him without questioning him. He knew them and knew how they were and what they thought and felt.

Now he was standing there, not even daring to lift his head because he felt so miserable.

Usually he would just jump on the bed, making himself comfortable on the sheets but now he stood there and didn't even dare jumping up.

With a hum, she made him jump on the bed. She didn't mind the hair. And even if she did, she still could change the sheets tomorrow. But it would be fucking hypocritical to complain about the hair in her bed when she was a wolven herself.

Hopping on the bed too, she laid down beside her brother.

Rokash immediately snuggled up to her, burying his face in her neck and drawing shaky breaths. It may sound odd, but this shaky breath and the low whining he let her hear every now and then was something you could consider being the wolven way of crying.

With a low hum, she laid her head on Rokash's front paws, letting hear the previous hum every now and then and thinking about how this used to calm her down when she had been hiding at her brother's when something scared the shit out of her and he hummed like she did now.

The next day when Kai woke up, the bed was empty.

That was pretty normal by now.

Grif would appear thoroughly wrecked, staying with her during the night and silently cry. But when she would wake up in the morning, he was gone and back to his old self. At least he acted like he was back to his old self.

Everyone who was familiar with the wolven pack structure or knew Grif better could see straight through his act.

Entering the mess hall to grab something to eat before leaving for school, she could see Grif eating his breakfast rather listlessly.

She could understand what he was going through. When you lost your mate, you don't feel like eating. In fact, you don't want to eat at all.

Although Simmons wasn't her mate, she felt almost the same way about that since he was a member of her pack. She too didn't feel like eating.

But they _had_ to eat.

They had to go to school and to work. They had to be ready for the fight. And they needed to be okay for when Simmons returned.

That was what made Grif start to eat again. During the first two days he didn't eat at all, but Kai managed to bribe him into eating. Her argument was rather simple.

It wouldn't help Simmons if Grif was miserable and starved almost to death when he came back, after all. When he comes back from wherever he is, he might be psychically unstable due to what he had to endure and then he would definitely need Grif to be fit in order to help him get back on track.

It would help neither of them if Grif was badly off when Simmons came home.

Besides, if he wasn't in top fitness for him, Kimball wouldn't take him with her when they attacked the lab they learned about some days ago.

The attack could happen any day by now and every member of the team that Kimball had announced would accompany her needed to always be in top form. She needed everyone to be ready and fit for when they attacked as otherwise it would cause deaths they could easily avoid so long as everyone took care of themselves.

"Morning." Kai mumbled when she sat down on the opposite side of the other wolven.

He only looked up shortly, his eyes red and black rings were underneath them from the lack of sleep he was experiencing due to the constant nightmares.

Since Simmons disappeared, not even Tucker dared to keep them company which came from Grif almost biting off his head when he made a lame joke about Simmons maybe getting laid and enjoying his time there.

Kai heard how Wash gave him a piece of his mind after bringing him to security outside the mess hall.

Sister had to keep Grif in the mess hall and calm him down enough that he wouldn't shorten the Incubus about a head when he next saw him following that.

Tucker could be such an insensitive prick at times.

"I am getting my test in English class back today. I think I did well." Kai stated, desperately trying to take Grif's thoughts off of Simmons for just some moments.

Her brother barely acknowledged it. He only shortly looked up at her, trying to find out if she was lying or not.

When he was sure that she wasn't lying he quickly smiled a small smile before looking back at his plate again.

"You know, I was pretty confident when I went into the test." she continued, "I am going to show you the mark today in the evening, okay?" she smiled broadly, although it was a rather flat one.

Grif again looked up, nodding slightly to give her an affirmative response.

She knew that he knew that she only meant well so he didn't snap at her when she tried to cheer him up. He seemed to appreciate it instead.

Putting down his cutlery, he got up and picked up his tray.

"Sorry, Kai, I am a terrible Alpha but I don't feel so well. I need some time alone before I go to work." He mumbled, looking down at the tray with its half-eaten food.

"Don't worry about being a bad Alpha, that's normal." Kai replied, "You sure you don't want to call a day in? I can check with Kimball." she offered, looking at her brother.

He sighed, shifting the weight of the tray to comb his fingers through his black hair.

"Nah, working helps me keeping my mind off of everything. When I stay here, I feel like I could snap." He replied in an unusually silent and defeated tone.

"Just watch out that you don't get hurt at any of the machines."

Kai was concerned about her brother.

He almost didn't eat anymore, he barely slept and was overall badly off. He shouldn't be working with dangerous machines in this state.

"Kimball got it covered for me. I am currently only instructing the crane driver where to put stuff." He explained and Kai felt herself relaxing at that.

At least he was out of the danger zone and if not there was someone to watch out for him.

"But it helps me take my mind off things." He added with a mumble, again looking to the door.

Kai smiled at that before replying, "Got it, big bro. Then go. Just be careful, okay?"

Grif nodded again, offering her a small but thankful smile before leaving the mess hall.

Kai returned to her breakfast, chewing on it rather listlessly while she thought about everything.

She only hoped that Kimball would announce the day of the attack soon, or she heavily doubted that Grif would be around to witness that day if it was sometime in the far future.

Her brother _needed_ his mate back. And she was sure that Simmons had the same problem and wanted to be back by his mate's side too.

Maybe she could ask Kimball today after school to listen to her so she could explain the whole situation to her? Maybe that would get her to hurry her plans and to attack sooner than initially planned?

Anyway, they had to do something!

And that something better happen soon!


	52. Chapter 52

The whole Sanctuary seemed to be turned upside down ever since Simmons' disappearance.

Everyone was behaving strangely, as if out of their minds. They were acting stressed and moody.

He couldn't put a finger on why that was exactly, but Bitters was sure that everyone was affected by it.

Hell, even the fucking trees seemed to have picked up on whatever was going on and were nervous and stressed!

Being with the bigger oak, he tried to calm said plant down to make him feel better. His trees being anxious made him edgy too, after all.

Even the small one, now standing in one of the yards in the back of the house close to the church, was on edge. The small one just had been replanted, finding his space there after getting too big.

And this was _after_ the small tree had finally calmed down from moving to the place following Bitters needing to take some extra time to hang around his little pal despite preferring to be in the house since he was in a relationship with his love who lived there.

When he was finally calm enough following the move some days before the kidnapping, Bitters had returned to the room he shared with Matthews.

Now, however, he had to be at practically three places all at one time as he had to calm down the two trees as well as Matthews.

Speaking of which, he had finished his school with a Summa cum laude as Simmons had done (they were both such fucking nerds) and now had opened up his own clinic to help people with psychological problems.

Within a short amount of time he had gotten extremely popular, now even celebrities from all around the globe came to him.

He was known as a natural when it came to psychology. However, everyone knowing him knew that he was a natural because of his special ability: empathy.

Being able to feel what your counterpart is feeling is rather helpful to find out what is bothering them when they often didn't know themselves. Telepathy might be even more helpful, but Matthews had trained his ability so well that he could feel even the slightest twinge in an individual's soul and react on it with the right questions to get to the core of an issue as soon as possible.

He was a fucking natural and even helped the inhabitants of the Sanctuary whenever he could.

He also often was around when there was a new guest who wasn't able to talk. He would be there and would warn people if the new arrival was on the verge of freaking out and attacking or when he or she was feeling pain or something else discomforting.

However, just at that moment as he was walking down to the heart of the Sanctuary, said man was walking beside him. Since Matthews had started his new job, he had become a lot calmer and more confident in what he was doing.

This change was also visible in the way he was keeping himself upright: even in his gait it was visible that he was much more confident and sure of what he was doing.

It looked good on him: this confident gait. The way he kept himself always walking upright, the way he was smirking so fucking cockily that it made Bitters want to slap him across his face and kiss him all at the same time.

Entering the heart of the Sanctuary, Bitters stayed back a bit whilst Matthews went to one of the cages and entered a code for it. The door snapped open, the opening getting answered with a crowing from inside.

"Why don't you come out? It's me, Matthews, and my boyfriend, Bitters." The empath said slowly and patiently, obviously having picked up on Hera's confusion.

Bitters stayed in the back, always grinning about this situation when Matthews said something about Bitters being his boyfriend. God, this boy stuttered during the first times he said that like crazy, muttering that part more than saying it.

The Dryad often had a good laugh at that when his boyfriend had been so awkward as that had been admittedly cute to see.

Not that this more confident Matthews now wasn't awesome and great, but Bitters just missed that old Matthews from time to time.

Sitting down on the ground, Bitters let Hera come out and get familiar with them again.

He waited for the harpy to leave her room and feel comfortable once more. She looked a bit disheveled, her feathers in a disarray. She set them straight again after sitting down on the metal desk in the middle of the heart.

Matthews had set up this meeting in the middle, so Hera still had a safe place in her room she would be able to retire to when she was feeling too overwhelmed.

Fondly, Bitters was able to observe how Hera got used to them more and more with each day passing, using her room as a safe retreat less with every meeting they had.

They came down here every day, spending time with her, even playing a bit with her if she was feeling up for it.

First, Matthews and Bitters used to initiate the playtime. However, when Hera noticed that, she started initiating the playtime on her own. Bitters and Matthews accepted it whenever she wanted to play or not.

There were especially bad days still, but since she found a family in Bitters and Matthews she had calmed down a lot. Feeling like belonging somewhere often tended to make people calm down.

Bitters was talking out of his own experience. He hadn't felt at home somewhere for a long time after being taken from the forest.

This only started to change when he had started dating Matthews. Before that, he often tended to hide in the tree, away from everyone else as this all was way too overwhelming for him.

A new place after being kidnapped, small cages and shit.

Then the release and coming to a new place, new people, new surroundings, and all the other shit that entailed had made him retreat in the tree to not feel overwhelmed.

It was understandable that type of experience was way too much for pretty much anyone in his shoes. He was sure that anyone else in his place would have retreated too.

That was until this fucking awkward-but-adorable-nonetheless dork appeared at the bottom of the tree and sat down there to study.

 _That_ was when it all started.

Sometime later down the road, they had started dating and Bitters began to slowly start feeling at home and accepting the Sanctuary as his new home. As they continued dating, the Dryad started calming down and even slowly began opening up to the others, although he always stayed a sarcastic, ironic, sometimes even cynical asshole all the same.

But back to the topic at hand.

Simmons had been taking care of Hera until he had disappeared, with Matthews being around to alarm him of any changes in her mood.

Matthews wasn't that new to Hera because of that, but she had been out of sorts anyway as Simmons didn't come to her from one day to another. She understood enough of the human language to know what they were talking about when the subject of his disappearance came up around her.

It took Matthews hours to get her to come out without Simmons being around nonetheless, as she had been reliving her previous fear of everyone leaving her all alone.

In the end, that had caused Matthews to ask Bitters to accompany him just for Hera to have someone else who she would get to know and bond with.

The Dryad had often been keeping himself in the background, watching Matthews and Hera interact so that he would just be around to help her get used to him.

When she was feeling okay with him, he started coming closer. Hera was also making some small attempts at this point to come closer to Bitters and get to know him.

Up until now, they managed to be around each other without Hera jumping sky high whenever he moved suddenly.

Slow and steady movements were okay for her in the beginning, but any fast and unexpected movements made her jump in anxiety whenever they happened.

However, since the beginning of this week, she started to calm down and trust Bitters to not hurt her even with faster movements.

Today, she seemed to be having a rather good day.

She was fooling around with Matthews without hurting him. She was too young in terms of a harpy to speak the human language, but she already understood a lot, mostly due to Simmons, Matthews, and now Bitters involving her in whatever they were talking about.

Sitting on the ground about five feet away from the stretcher that Hera had been sitting on previously, he observed the two behaving mischievously with a fond smile. It looked very much like a family interaction.

A mismatched one maybe, but a family nonetheless.

It was a strange feeling to actually think about this one here as his family and that he could maybe ask Matthews later on about an idea that just struck him.

They were both males, granted, but maybe Kimball would allow him and Matthews to take up the role as a foster family of the Sanctuary, raising the kids here as their own when needed and helping them get used to the Sanctuary, the people here, and their new surroundings faster.

It was an idea and he didn't know what Matthews would think about it, but it sounded pretty awesome to Bitters in his mind. The warm feeling blooming in his chest confirmed his suspicion about the idea.

He almost didn't hear the questioning crow and the slight nudging of his right arm.

Blinking in confusion, he looked down and saw Hera beside him, looking questioningly to him then back down to the toy on his lap and back up to him.

"You want me to throw the ball?" Bitters asked dumbfounded, Hera making a huffing noise through her nostrils like Bitters often tended to do when someone was asking dumb questions.

Bitters snorted, "Okay, okay. No need to get your panties in a twist."

"Bitters!" hissed Matthews warningly, but the Dryad flipped him off and took the ball.

First he looked at it a bit confused. It was a tan thing with grey stripes on it. Not really a catch in terms of colors, but Hera loved it.

Throwing it up in the air as high he was able to, Hera extended her wings and started fluttering up in the air to catch it.

The more they played this game, the better Hera became in flying and gliding in the air once she caught the ball.

As there was no other Abnormal living here who had a remotely close physiognomy to her, she had to learn everything on her own.

This playful way of teaching her was a way to help her with learning how to fly and catch things, although they only could play this game as long as she really wanted to do so.

There were some days where she just wanted to be close to them and enjoy her time with them.

When she was like that, neither of the guys pressured her to fly or play, and they would sit with her and enjoy their time together.

Hera caught the ball in the middle of its way down, with Matthews and Bitters both praising her.

Her chest puffed with pride when she glided down to the ground and brought the ball back to Bitters to start throwing it again.

She was already pretty big and when straightening up she already reached up to Bitters' waist.

For her age that was rather big and Bitters was curious about how big she would become in the end when she was grown up.

Playing with her for several minutes, he could see Matthews standing beside the door to Hera's room, observing both with a fond smile.

Only after Bitters threw up the ball again did Matthews leave his spot beside the door and slowly started walking over to the Dryad to stand beside him.

It was a rather big step as Hera never had been around them with Matthews and Bitters being so close to each other. Bitters was understandably curious and nervous to see her reaction.

Indeed, first Hera stopped in mid-flight and made a crowing sound that was muffled by the ball.

Matthews smiled and extended one of his arms towards her, the other around Bitters' waist, "It's okay, Hera. You wanna come to us?"

The harpy first landed some meters away, giving Matthews and Bitters some time to take their seats on the ground again.

Only after that did she start coming closer, eyeing both a bit suspiciously. When she finally noticed that neither of them meant any harm with being so close to each other, she walked closer until she settled in-between both of them.

Her ball was long forgotten, lying somewhere close to her room where she had put it.

Hera herself was leaning against Matthews and Bitters, her eyes closed with a contended sigh and keeping still there, obviously enjoying being near both males.

When she was calm enough, Matthews lifted his head, "Harpy parents often take their children in-between them like this in order to shelter their child. It's something known to her, something she recognizes as comforting." He explained calmly, looking down to the almost sleeping Hera.

Bitters made a low "Oh." noise before also looking down to the almost sleeping harpy, obviously highly enjoying being pressed in-between both of them.

Deciding to try to give it a go now rather than later, Bitters exhaled slowly before looking up to Matthews. The empath had already picked up on the slight turmoil in his soul.

"You know… I was wondering if we maybe wanted to do more of this." Bitters started slowly, looking down to Hera again who now really was sleeping, having her head tucked under her wings.

"What do you mean?" Matthews asked, not knowing exactly what he was referring to.

Bitters' smile grew when he heard a contented purr from Hera, "I mean this fostering. Looking after kids who come here without parents and who need someone."

There was a short silence before Matthews answered slowly, "You mean being foster parents for the kids here?"

Bitters nodded, "Something like that." He said at length before adding, "I had been pretty uprooted myself when I came here. New people, new place, all that shit." He explained, "I only started feeling well here when I started dating you. You made me feel at home."

Matthews blushed and Bitters smiled, "I want to help the kids here feel at home when they are as uprooted as I was. I want to give them a 'home' they can feel safe in and start feeling better in before meeting everyone else."

He made a shrugging notion with his shoulder, not really knowing how to explain it further, "I just want to make sure they're feeling okay and not having to face everything at once. That they have a safe haven they can return to in case they feel overwhelmed, like Hera here can."

With that, he gently patted her back, earning a contended hum from her. She pressed a bit further into his side, searching for his comfort.

Matthews sat beside him, mustering him with a long and attentive look that had Bitters starting to feel just a tad uncomfortable.

Then he laughed lowly before answering, "Why the hell not? Let's ask Kimball tomorrow when she has time. That's a great idea!"

A light blush crept over Bitters' rather dark features whilst he threw his love a fond but awkward smile.

This definitely could be one of the best ideas he had ever had.


	53. Chapter 53

When Tucker returned with Junior to the Sanctuary from his son's parent-teacher conference, he sent him with his school stuff to Andersmith who supervised and helped the kids with their homework.

Tucker for his part went to his room and abandoned his formal outfit. He slipped into some loose pants and a white shirt before going over to Wash's as the werecat hadn't been around, but Tucker knew he was there due to the bike standing beside the entrance of the building.

The parent-teacher conference had been this annual fuck he had to go to every year. It was annoying as nothing else but he had to play the good parent and go to this conference for Junior's sake.

In the end, there was nothing major coming up. Junior was doing good and getting even better, which was only thanks to Wash but Tucker restrained himself before he started to brag too much about him.

Junior seemed to be on the same page, just saying that he was doing his best. They both knew at least how important it was to keep their secret and the Sanctuary safe.

Junior's grades were getting progressively better and his behavior was getting better too. He was stable and not having fits like he used to have before Tucker and Wash started to date, and his teacher was pretty proud of him for doing so well.

Tucker was extremely proud of his son as well, and they were soon able to leave and return around noon to the Sanctuary where he had enough time to send Junior to do homework at Andersmith's and talk to Wash a bit to inform him about the conference before going to dinner.

But when Tucker entered Wash's room, he immediately forgot about what he wanted to say when he saw his boyfriend sitting on the bed like the world was ending.

He looked so sad and crestfallen, it made Tucker cringe in anticipation. The werecat was sitting on the bed, holding something grey and yellow in his hands, which looked like a shredded piece of clothing.

Wash's face showed clearly that he was extremely sad about this thing being shredded and Tucker could imagine him crying over it too.

Walking over to the bed, he sat down beside his boyfriend and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Hey there, Wash. What's up?"

It was then, when he seemed to notice the Incubus being in the room, that his head jerked up and he looked at him with wide eyes.

It took him a second to realize in what situation he was in before he sighed deeply and clutched the cloth, "I was with Aki today as I had a day off. I tried getting her used to my human form."

Tucker remembered Wash being with Aki as they both were werecats and Wash was trying to socialize her. She had been extremely shy and aggressive at first, but Wash soon managed to at least teach her rudimentary manners when it came to their shared cat form.

Today, Wash told Tucker, he had tried for the first time to approach her in his human form without first meeting her in his cat form.

This obviously didn't turn out well…

Tucker forced himself back to reality to listen to his love.

"She didn't react well to me coming in in my human form without first appearing as a cat." He sighed deeply, again looking at the shredded cloth, "She attacked me and tore my favorite hoodie." He ended, looking extremely crestfallen.

Tucker waited a moment, letting the information sink in, before trying, "So she's still extremely aggressive towards humans? Even if they are of her own kind?"

Wash nodded, sighing again. "Something bad must have happened to her in the past, although she hasn't told me what exactly. There must have been something involving humans, although she's even more aggressive towards men. Whatever happened, men must have been the main aggressors given her reactions to them."

Tucker hummed to inform Wash that he understood what he meant, before asking, "But do you still have other hoodies lying around or do you have to go out nude now?"

A mischievous grin appeared on the Incubus' features.

He could see Wash turning pink, but his reply made the Incubus stop trying to talk dirty.

"Of course it's my only hoodie." Wash deadpanned, obviously in a sarcastic tone, before continuing, "It was just my absolute favorite hoodie since I got it from an old woman."

"You mean after the project?" Tucker asked, actually never having heard of it in detail.

Wash nodded, "Yeah, I mainly survived the collapse of the building and the project only because I had been on a solo mission back then to retrieve intel. When I heard about everything going to waste and the public starting to judge us and reacting negatively to what had happened, I decided to haul ass and get as far away as possible. I didn't want to get in the crossfire, even more considering the fact that some of the previous Freelancers before I came were said to have disappeared when they were no longer meeting the project's requirements anymore." Wash shortly explained, sighing again and throwing the torn hoodie into the bin.

"I started fending for myself for the first time. I tried pickpocketing people and all sorts of other things. I'm not proud of it." Wash added quickly, "But I had to in order to survive. Anyway, after my clothes were torn after I got beat up by several gang members when I tried pickpocketing one of them, I started wandering around as a cat since I noticed that people were more likely to give me food when I looked like that." Wash grinned unhappily at the memory.

Tucker could imagine it. Nowadays, people were more friendly to animals than to their own kind.

"Some time after that, I was found by an old cat lady. You might not know it, but cat ladies aren't ladies who just keep a hoard of cats in their house. Back in the day, cat ladies had been people knowing about werecats and giving them shelter. Something like a safe house." Wash explained.

Tucker blinked in surprise. He had never heard about that, actually.

"During the time when werewolvens were being killed off, it also happened to my kind and the cat ladies. Almost all werecats and cat ladies were killed off and the initial meaning of 'cat lady' got lost during the centuries." Wash continued his explanation.

"Anyways, the cat lady I met was one of the few who was a real cat lady and also knew how to tell the difference between real cats and werecats. She knew from the beginning when she saw me what I was. She knelt down beside me while I was playing the nice cat and pressed up to her leg. While she was scratching behind my ears, she said that she was a real cat lady and knew who I was. She told me where she was living and that I should come over whenever I needed shelter." Wash let out a huff of a laugh, continuing.

"I was frozen with anxiety at first and almost peed my pants. However, sometime later, my curiosity got the better of me and I went over and checked it out. There were some other werecats, coming and going as they liked too. For my part, I decided to stay and help the old lady whenever and with whatever I was able to do."

Wash sat a bit straighter, rolling his shoulders, "As a thank you, I was allowed to stay there and got fed. She even offered me some clothes."

Tucker assumed at this part, "One of the clothes was your hoodie, right?" he asked carefully.

The freelancer nodded, "Yes, it was a steel grey hoodie and I loved it. It was so comfortable and warm, and I often slept in it as a cat when not wearing it as a human. I guarded it like a treasure." A rueful smile appeared on his lips.

"Soon after that, the old lady was killed by some kids intruding who wanted to steal her stuff. She only got in their way." Tucker opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Wash, "I couldn't be a witness or anything like that as I was a fugitive ex-special-ops of a project that had fucked up people rather badly. I would have gotten arrested and interrogated. I would never have seen the sunlight again. Also York, North, and Carolina hauled ass after they got out. We all are mostly known to be dead, taking up other names when being out in public. Like I use Brendan Corwell."

Tucker nodded, having closed his mouth again. He could understand the conflicted feeling Wash had towards the death of the old lady. He liked her, but due to his state as a wanted soldier of an unofficial and illegal project, he couldn't help without getting caught himself. It was a fucking hell of a predicament.

Nodding again, he waited for the werecat to continue, "Anyway, after again living on the street, a sprayer once found me at one of his favorite places, thinking I was going to take this spot as I obviously looked like a sprayer too. He attacked me with the yellow spray can he held in his hands and, well…that's how the hoodie got its streaks. It took me weeks to get the color out of my hair." Wash sighed again, this time more agitated when thinking of what happened.

Tucker grinned at the mental image that provided, "I would have loved to see you like that."

The werecat threw him an angry glare out of the corner of his eyes. Tucker grinned broadly.

When Wash's ears were visible, he would have them pressed flat on his skull as a display of annoyance.

Again, the werecat sighed before getting up.

"Well, I guess it's time to move on, although I would have loved to keep it a little bit longer." Wash ended the excursion into his past before looking up to Tucker, "How was your parent-teacher conference?"

Tucker needed a second to register the change of subject before starting to grin broadly, "Fucking awesome. The teacher is fucking proud of Junior for increasing his marks and getting better with keeping his temper in check. He's extremely impressed by his progress and couldn't praise him enough. He's doing fucking great."

A warm smile appeared on Wash's features, observing the Incubus speaking vividly with his hands flying through the air.

That was until a warm smile appeared on the dark skinned man's features, before he added, "He owes all of that to you. And me too. Thanks for that, that's awesome. _You're_ awesome."

Again, a dark shade of pink appeared on the werecat's features when he heard that. "I gladly did it. I like spending time with Junior and you, no matter what it is. I am happy when he is doing good and gets praised for it." He replied with a smile that was a blend between awkward and happy.

This small smile was returned with a broad one from Tucker, before the Incubus shortly leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"I'm really glad I didn't fuck it up with you back then." He returned with a relieved sigh before getting up, "Anyways, I guess it's around lunchtime and Junior is done with his homework. How about getting something to eat and then we can watch Junior's favorite movie together to celebrate?"

"Sounds like a great plan." Wash returned, getting up too to get Junior and do exactly what Tucker had proposed.

Some days after Aki shredded the hoodie, the Incubus was wearing a long hoodie although it was hot as balls outside. It was an unusually hot summer and Tucker _had_ to wear a hoodie. He felt like sweating to death in the fucking thing.

Of course, this wasn't lost on Wash as he came back from his work as a bicycle courier. He was freshly showered as he entered Tucker's room, Junior playing in his room beside Tucker's.

The Incubus himself was sitting on the couch.

Did he already mention that he was sweating like crazy?

He had a wrapped gift on his lap, it being about a hand high, broad, and felt both fluffy and smooth.

When he saw Wash enter, he called for his son, who came over not a second later and flopped on the couch beside his father.

Wash raised an eyebrow and looked at the father-son team, standing in the room a bit lost.

"Why don't you have a seat, Wash?" The Incubus asked with a sheepish but anticipating smile.

"Uh, okay?" The werecat muttered, but sat down on the couch before asking, "Why are you wearing a hoodie? It's hot as balls and you look like you're sweating like crazy." The werecat mustered the Incubus with an attentive stare.

"Oh that…. Well… Uhm… Donut said something about losing weight like that. Yeah, that's it." Tucker muttered, a little blush appearing on his cheeks.

The Incubus received from both Junior and Wash disbelieving and doubting glances, although Junior was doubting his dad's sanity more and ability to lie while Wash doubted more the very obvious lie.

Luckily, the werecat decided to not comment on it anymore and just sat there, waiting for the Incubus to say something more.

He didn't react, however, until Junior shoved his elbow in Tucker's side and muttered, "Dad!"

They both knew that Wash had fucking acute hearing and that he would hear everything they talked about.

The call from Junior, however, seemed to snap the Incubus out of his reverie.

He started smiling broadly, shoving the present into his boyfriend's chest, "We got this here for you. I hope you like it."

"We?" Wash asked, looking at both the broadly grinning Tucker and a frantically nodding Junior.

"Yeah we did. Come on, Wash, open it." Tucker pressed.

"But I don't even have a birthday anytime soon and it isn't Christmas or something." Wash replied, surprised and confused.

His reaction made Tucker huff in annoyance.

"Dude, seriously? Do you always need to have a birthday or it needs to be a special occasion for your boyfriend and his son to offer you something?" Tucker frowned slightly, struggling with Wash sometimes being so slow on the uptake and rather complicated when it came to simple social interactions.

"Uh, of course not. I am just surprised." the werecat muttered, his cheeks again turning pink in shame.

Carefully and slowly, the werecat then started opening the present, unwrapping it like a precious treasure he didn't want to destroy. Tucker knew he hadn't gotten much presents and that every present is something special to him.

This slow opening, however, was agonizing for Tucker. He seriously wanted to get out of this hot as balls hoodie!

When the paper finally was open and the present revealed, Tucker could see Wash's eyes widening in surprise. He took the grey hoodie up, holding it up and staring at it.

It was a steel grey hoodie as his previous one had been. Tucker had a pretty good eye for colors and was able to find a hoodie with almost the exact same color.

There were some streaks on the flanks and the arms of the hoodie. Instead of looking like wildly having paint sprayed over it, they more resembled the stripes of a tiger. On the back of the hoodie there was even a tail sprayed on.

Lifting the hood, he could see cat ears having been sprayed on with the yellow color and on the front, where the pouch was, were four hands.

Or more accurately, the negative of hands.

When Tucker had been finished with the design, he got Junior and instructed him to press his hands beside each other in the middle of the pouch and Tucker sprayed over them. When they were dry, Tucker held his hands on each side of Junior's, as though he were framing them, and let Junior spray them, only saying that he had to be careful to not overspray his handprints.

When both were dry, he thought hard on what to put on the front. It took him until yesterday, when he asked Junior to just spray over it like Wash's old hoodie had been.

Of course this also hit Tucker's hands which was why he was wearing a hoodie although it was hot as balls. He didn't want to give away the surprise by showing the yellow streaks on his arms.

It was silent for several minutes, until Wash let the hoodie sink and looked at the Incubus and then at the changeling.

"You did this?" He asked, still completely baffled by the surprise.

Tucker considered that a win.

"Sure, dude. Junior and I had plenty of fun doing that."

Tucker now slipped out of his hoodie, showing the yellow streaks on his arms with a grin while Junior was nodding frantically with the same wide grin plastered on his face.

"That's…" Wash began, but he had to stop himself to take in air, "That's awesome." He choked out.

"Thank you very much, Tucker and Junior. I am extremely happy you made that surprise for me." He added, smiling brightly.

This little gesture made Tucker's heart flutter and his broad smile turned into a warm and fond one.

"You're welcome. After you told me that, I thought this would be a good surprise for you. It's not the same and it's something personal made by us, but it's close to what you had."

"I wouldn't want another hoodie being exactly the same as the old was since the past would be missing still. But this one here is a new one with my favorite color combination and I can make some new memories with the hoodie together with you and everything. It's perfect in its own way." He explained, his smile turning into a fond one as well as Wash got up to hug Junior and to thank him.

The boy soon after disappeared into his room to get ready for his evening two hours with Andersmith and the other kids.

Wash and Tucker then sat on the couch together, smiling at each other fondly.

"Oh, one more thing." Tucker then spoke up as if he had forgotten something. Wash blinked at him confused, but didn't say anything in order to get the Incubus to continue, "Just don't wear it when being around Aki, okay?"

This time Wash chuckled lowly, before replying, "Nope, not this one. I did learn a bit out of that incident."

After that, they again smiled at each other before both leaning in at the same time to meet in the middle for a kiss.

It didn't take long for the kiss to escalate into something more, the couple sinking down on the couch and starting a make out session which only marked the beginning of what was to come.


	54. Chapter 54

"Any idea on how we could get into the facility in the Valley of Siweberjen?"

The question had been asked by Carolina as Kimball had to play the unknowing girlfriend and went out on a date with Hargrove as she wanted to get more information out of him. At least she had enough experience to play a role due to having lived for more than two hundred years by now.

How had that come about, by the way? Well, during her studies as one of the first women to attend a university, she performed an experiment on her own body.

She had found some blood of people everyone would call elven today. They had slightly pointed ears and lived extremely long. However, this race died out and only a few samples of their blood were left scattered all over the world.

During a trip to the Amazonian forest, she found a vial with elven blood in a forgotten temple there.

However, as the examination hadn't yet reached a breaking point, she decided to use a bit of the blood on herself to see what would happen.

In the end, some of the blood changed her DNA and had extended her life to an unknown extent.

Elven people had been able to live for way more than five hundred years back in the day, so not only Carolina was curious to see how long Kimball would be able to live. Maybe they would find that out together as Carolina was extremely long living herself given the fact that she was a Phoenix.

Back to the topic at hand.

It was deadly silent in the room, everyone obviously deep in their thoughts.

There was North, York, Grif, Kai, Sarge, Donut, Wash, Tucker, Alpha, Lopez and Doyle. The Mouser had come to the Sanctuary in Atlanta only to help get Simmons back as he was thankful for what the wolven had done for him during the past years.

Epsilon was missing for unknown reasons.

"I would say we get our shotguns ready and walk right in!" Sarge thundered with his deep voice and cocked the shotgun he had been carrying around since the attack on the Sanctuary.

"I don't think that would be such a good idea considering how heavily the facility is guarded." North replied with an apologetic smile towards Sarge.

Said Diacom only muttered something under his breath that sounded oddly like "Then go in and die. See if I care."

Carolina decided not to comment on the Diacom's antics this time around.

After this short intermission, it was Tucker who spoke up next, "I know this might sound fucked up, but how about we pretend we're working for them and get into the facility that way?"

"What do you mean?" Carolina asked, regarding the Incubus attentively.

Tucker had shown a great affinity for strategies during the last few weeks they had started involving him in planning raids.

Tucker rubbed the back of his neck, obviously having taken up that attitude from Wash, "You know, like putting rare Abnormals who volunteered into boxes and bringing them to Hargrove in this valley in butt-fuck-nowhere." He explained, "We know what kind of Abnormals he is looking for and we have some of them here. We could fake the papers and instead bring in our army hidden in boxes. Like you, North, Wash, York, Grif… They could open the gates then to let the others in." Tucker elaborated further, still looking a bit hesitant but getting more confident when Wash nodded supportively towards him.

Carolina pondered over the idea for a moment before replying with a small nod, "That sounds like a plausible idea, however we will need to have a detailed picture of the place there otherwise we can't plan the raid."

Before anyone was able to say more, the door opened and Epsilon entered the room. He looked extremely out of breath.

"You called?" He put a small camera on the desk they were all standing around.

The camera was attached to a necklace, which most likely meant that Epsilon had been wearing it around his neck as a bat.

"You weren't seriously spying out the facility, were you?" Carolina snarled.

Epsilon, already having his breathing back in check, raised an eyebrow at her reaction, "Why wouldn't I? A bat during the night isn't so unusual there given the fact that there's a bat cave in the proximity of the facility and lots of them fly around the entrance at this time. The light there attracts tons of insects they chase. One more or not doesn't really attract attention." His voice clearly gave away that he didn't give a fuck what Carolina though about his course of actions.

Said Phoenix growled and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Anything else I need to know?"

"Only one thing."

This time it was Grif who had spoken up, taking Simmons' tablet and typing something on it.

In the next moment, a blueprint of a building appeared.

"I found that on Simmons' tablet. He once got a package of data from an informant of ARA. He couldn't really put this blueprint into a logical relation with the other cases we had then, so he put it away on the tablet under 'Open cases.' I found it when I was looking through the tablet to find some information about his work and what he had found out so far." Grif explained as everyone looked at the blueprint.

It was plain crazy and lucky, but in the right lower corner, there stood clearly and legibly: ' _Siweberjen Base_.'

Everyone gaped at the blueprint, Carolina starting to speak first, "That's fucking crazy but we can use that now too. Let's just hope this isn't an ambush."

"I don't think it will be." Grif muttered, opening another document out of this folder, "He sent it to an IT Specialist and to a specialist in construction to ask to verify it and to find out if the blueprint was even feasible to build. Both of them sent messages back and confirmed that it was possible and feasible. I think it's a pretty safe guess to say it is the real thing."

Everyone stood there in awe, staring at the clearly visible blueprint again.

"Okay then," Carolina cracked her knuckles before leaning over the plan, "Let's start discussing this so we can offer Kimball a fitting plan when she returns."

Immediately, the room was filled with low murmurs, people attentively watching Epsilon's video he had made and connecting the pictures with the entrances noted on the blueprint. Some were pointing to different points on the blueprint and signing something. There were notes taken, and there were handmade pictures drawn to illustrate what one was thinking would be the best course of action to take at a certain point of time or at a certain area.

Others again and again watched the video, asking Epsilon questions on what he had seen, heard, and smelled while he had been there, as well as what he had thought of having been there personally and all that.

It took hours for them to set up a plan, but there was still time for everyone to grab a bite and return to the situation room before Kimball returned and showed up there directly.

Nobody asked her about the date, as she started telling them about it herself.

"Don't ask, I'm going to tell you whatever information you need but I don't want to talk about anything else." It was so unusual for the leader of the Sanctuary to speak like that, and that made everyone shut up and listen to her attentively.

It took her some moments, but she was able to tell them some things about what she had found out from Hargrove. When he had left her alone for a moment, she had even managed to make a copy of his phone and pull out some information there without him noticing.

After Kimball was done talking about her experiences, Carolina and the others told her what they had found out and what they were planning on doing.

Of course, she hadn't been thrilled to hear about Epsilon's ego-show but thanked him in the end nonetheless but not without saying that she wouldn't tolerate another one-man-show like he had pulled without any consequences to be had.

Tucker explained the strategy he had set up, also explaining what they all worked out and how they planned on raiding the Sanctuary.

They would enter with a small group of around twenty people split up in ten crates and two drivers.

Thanks to Epsilon, they also knew how the uniforms looked.

The first group would enter the Sanctuary through the entrance with this cover. When the first group was in, they would split up in order to open two of the side gates and let in the rest of the army.

Each team of the door-openers would join up with a group and go together with them. One of the groups would gather as much Intel as possible and put out explosives. After that, they would follow the other groups into the facility and keep the way out safe.

However, the other groups would enter the facility and try to free as many Abnormals as possible. At the very least they would definitely free Simmons, no matter what the cost.

Everyone of the people joining the mission knew about the fact that they could die, but they were all okay with it.

Even Tucker was going to be joining the army, not wanting to sit on his butt anymore whilst his friends were in danger.

Sure he had a son, but the plan had been created by him and only he could make up alternatives when it came time to push and go. He was so good at tactics that he was able to come up with alternatives pretty fast, and they usually were pretty damn good ones if he did say so himself.

So Wash, the overprotective boyfriend that he was, had no chance to talk Tucker out of coming along this time. At some point the werecat gave up on the concept entirely and accepted the fact that Tucker would be joining their mission.

Grif and Kai looked rather miserable, but were well-trained and ready for the fight, so Kimball gave them her okay to join as well, but only under the condition that they wouldn't do something stupid during the fight.

Of course everyone knew that Grif would run straight into a firefight if it meant getting to his mate, but they decided to ignore that. Having the wolven's mate with you is more of an advantage than a disadvantage in this special case. They needed him. And they needed Kai because she was a pack member too.

York was announced to be the leader of one of the groups, while Carolina and Kimball each took over one of the other groups.

"I want you to prepare everything. I give us all two weeks to organize what we'll need." Kimball ordered, looking into everyone's faces only to receive a nod and see a determined face staring back at her, "Carolina, would you kindly inform Katie to start building up the arsenal and anything else useful that she can provide?"

Carolina looked at her and nodded, but waited for more information from Kimball before she acted.

"As I understand it, the delivery happens every day around noon. We will intercept the transport somewhere away from the valley on their usual route and take it over. Some of us will free the Abnormals and bring them to the Sanctuary for medical treatment and to keep some of them if they can't go back home or are too dangerous to walk around freely." Kimball explained, pointing to a spot about ten kilometers away from the northern entrance of the valley where the transport always drove through.

"When we take the uniforms from the drivers and replaced the Abnormals in the crates with our own soldiers, we will commence as Tucker suggested… Letting this group open up the gates." Kimball's expression became deadly serious when she continued, "But we all have to be aware that there can and most likely will be deaths and casualties along the way, and that we will lose friends and loved ones. We can't go in there and think we'll come out without so much as a black eye."

The people in the room were all deadly serious, looking at her with such determination that they caused Kimball to relax somewhat. She saw that everyone was aware of that and ready to pay this price.

"I suggest that you all write out your testimonies along with the others who will be involved in this attack. We don't know who might be coming back and who might not be."

This was a rather sound idea in Carolina's book and she would do that as well. She might be a Phoenix, but when someone knew her soft spot or hit it by accident then her life would be over too, no matter what.

Hell, they could step on her foot when her ruby was located there and crush it by accident which would mean her imminent death.

Soon after, Kimball announced the meeting to be over and asked everyone to do as asked.

Carolina immediately left to speak to Jensen, who happily accepted the task and took off with a skip to her gait and a happy hum on her lips towards her workshop in a safe place in the Sanctuary where explosions wouldn't have such a great effect on the Sanctuary as elsewhere.

After that, she went back to her room, taking a blank page from her notepad and started writing down her last will by hand.

She didn't have much, but she made sure to mention each and every one of her friends so everyone would have no worries besides her being gone.

There also was the matter of her mother's ring. She clearly wrote in the testament that she wanted to be buried with the ring and that she didn't want to be buried in the earth.

Her element was fire and she wanted to be buried in this element when it came to her last course of action with her body. She wanted to be burned until nothing but ashes was left.

Her ashes, she wrote down, should be committed to the wind from the top of the Sanctuary, letting her fly for the last time.

When she was done with everything, she signed the testament, sealed it and then brought it to Kimball who had a safe only for the wills and testaments of her guests to make sure everyone's last will was followed as well as possible.

After that, she went directly to York's room.

He was, as Carolina already suspected, still working on the testament and struggling with the writing as he never had been one for writing in general.

The Phoenix spontaneously decided to go back to her room and change into her sleeping wear.

When she returned with her clothes for tomorrow, York was gone, most likely to bring his testament to Kimball.

Carolina put the clothes on the chair York had been sitting on only minutes ago. Afterwards, she went to the bed and fell on it.

It was way past midnight and she was ready to crash despite the heavy weight of the situation everyone involved in this attack was feeling.

However, she mustn't be consumed by hatred, revenge, and nervousness, as otherwise she would fail in the most important moment. And not sleeping didn't help anyone. She would only be less concentrated and more of a danger for the others than a help if she didn't get adequate rest.

When York returned, she could see his features light up when he saw her lying in his bed, obviously waiting for him to join her in dreams.

He hastily got ready for bed and changed his clothes before carefully slipping under the covers and embracing his love in a tight but careful embrace.

They kissed each other good night before they soon after fell asleep, tightly huddled up together.

They both enjoyed this, as this could be one of their last times they could be together like this given what they were both going to be doing in the next couple of days.


	55. Chapter 55

Grif definitely knew of better places to spend his pastime than being crammed together with his sister into a small-as-fuck wooden box.

Said box was being crammed on the truck bed with other boxes on a tiny transporter currently rumbling over the dry desert street, bumps and dents making the boxes jump slightly.

They had been on their way to Hargrove's hidden headquarters since lunch.

They had managed to intercept a transportation of Abnormals to the headquarters earlier. They had freed the Abnormals out of their cages and boxes, bringing them to the Sanctuary to check them over and let them stay in case they were too dangerous or wished to do so.

Instead of them, the team from the Sanctuary climbed into the boxes with Andersmith and Ramsey taking over the steering wheel and putting on the clothes of the people who had been sitting there previously.

Those guys were tied up, gagged, and left in the desert. There was an emergency tracker with them that would start to emit signals to the local police after five hours from now.

It wasn't that hot and dry today, so the guys would be fine aside from some headaches.

Grif could care less about that though given the fact that they were part of the team who had captured Simmons and had held him hostage, away from him.

The car made a rather violent jump and Grif hit his head.

"Ouch, can't these fuckers drive normally!?" He ranted, rubbing the hurt place on his skull.

Kai snorted beside him, rolling her shoulders as she obviously hit her neck or something during the bump.

Nearby, Grif could pick up Alpha's bitching in the box next to theirs. The bastard should just shut up since he had a box all to himself! After all, _he_ was crammed together with his sister in a box the same size as Alpha's!

In the other three boxes were Sheila, Lopez, Wash, Tucker, Junior, and Aki and in the fourth box were Matthews and Bitters with Hera.

Kimball had accepted the "kids'" help, namely Aki and Hera, as they both still had a score to settle with the Hargrove team and she had been pretty sure would be of a were of great help to them given their abilities.

Hera had gotten over her anxiety towards human, and was able now to differentiate between friend and foe.

Aki was used to Wash, Junior, and Tucker. She was also rather violent towards anyone she suspected to either be from Hargrove's team or who wanted to hurt her or her "family," namely her foster fathers Wash and Tucker as well as her foster brother Junior who often spent time with her by turning into a cat himself.

That had helped the young cat a lot with getting used to humans and they both were as close to each other as any siblings could be.

Besides, neither Tucker nor Wash minded having a second kid in their family to raise and help educate.

Since Wash was the only being at the Sanctuary who was able to teach Aki the important things about being a werecat, it was only logical that he would accept her as family and raise her.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: rescuing Simmons and the other Abnormals being kept at the facility as hostages.

Grif could feel the car slowing down and immediately it became silent in all of the boxes, aside from some of them making distressed noises. Grif imitated the distressed whines of a wolven as well, making sure people would think there was a captured wolven in the box.

They had already heard of Grif and Kai being on Hargrove's "grocery list" as it were, as he seemed to have noticed that he needed the pack to be together in order to keep Simmons alive and not cause him to die of withdrawal from his mate.

Hargrove also again wanted a member of the Church Clan and some other Abnormals that they couldn't deliver, but they decided to bribe the asshole with the three he seemed to want the most.

He would get them and they would get into the fucking complex to blow shit up.

The car came to a rumbling stop, the boxes shifting towards the front of the cargo area.

Grif cursed under his breath, making sure only Kai could hear his bitching which she promptly answered with a well-aimed hit in his ribs to make him shut up.

He growled at his sister and she replied with a raised eyebrow and a nonplussed expression. The girl could drive him nuts sometimes, but he loved her all the same. She was his sister and of the same blood, after all.

Pricking up his ears, Grif tried picking up on what the drivers were talking about, but he couldn't make out the words. He could only hear the affirmative grunt of an unknown voice he deciphered as one of the guards since they were unknown to him.

The transporter started moving again and soon Grif smelled the slightly stale air coming from the ventilation systems. Exactly the air you smell when you're in a place without fresh air supply from the outside but only fresh air being provided from the ventilation system.

Until the fresh air is down in the lowest room, it smelled stale and old. Not like fresh air at all.

As if Andersmith, that fuck, knew what Grif was thinking, he stopped abruptly which caused Grif to hit his head and now curse a bit louder than previously.

Not even Kai's hit in his guts made him stop. Instead it only caused him to throw her a devastating glare which she again answered with the same expression as before.

Grumbling, he sat up on his heels, knowing that they soon would break out of the boxes when they would receive the signal…

…Three short and two long knocks.

This meant that the security was already out cold with the gas they brought in. The gas wouldn't be detectable by the gas detectors and so they wouldn't start up a ruckus.

Climbing out of the boxes and to make sure they wouldn't be detected immediately, everyone helped with stuffing the guards in the boxes and closing them properly again, making sure that the boxes would be taken by the logistics team to bring them down to the holding cells.

They would follow there later, but now they needed to split up.

Sheila, Lopez, Wash, Tucker, Junior, Aki, and Alpha would take over the right entrance while the others, namely Kai, Grif, Bitters, Matthews, and Hera, would take over the left.

They snuck through the halls, Matthews and Wash having remembered the blueprints down to the last detail to make it possible to open the doors.

It was eerily quiet. Too quiet for Grif's liking, but he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Only moments later, they opened the side door and started leading their part of the army to the central area of the complex.

They met up soon with the others, Grif noticing the tenseness in the faces of the Freelancers and Tucker, feeling his own gut twisting a bit stronger.

Unlike their initial plan, Kimball decided to divide up their groups, leaving one of them hidden in the corners here to shoot out a way in case they get stuck. Tucker and Aki stayed there, along with Bitters and Matthews with Hera.

They were foster parents and no special OPs, so they would be their back-up.

All of the others started moving down the hallways, Grif's mind drifting back to the preparations.

 _Jensen had been tinkering all day and night, inventing individual clothing and armors for each of their abnormalities._

 _Such as an adapting armor-like body suit that he, Kai, and York wore._

 _Kai's was blatantly yellow though she insisted it was gray thanks to her color blindness, while he had one in orange. York's was tan with white accents._

 _In addition, Grif had a suit for Simmons with him that had been adapted to his new abilities, therefore making it possible for him to turn invisible and change in case he needed to do so._

 _When they were all geared up, they had gathered in the entrance area of the Sanctuary, splitting up into groups to get into the cars waiting outside, but Jensen held them up to kiss everyone's right wrist before all of them, including Jensen, left the Sanctuary._

 _Grif knew she was a Luck Eater, but it still was strange to be kissed by her. He only hoped he would be lucky, besides just his incredible luck to survive shit that others wouldn't._

They had just arrived in another hall on the floor where they had kept the Abnormals hostage and wanted to tear this wall down, when they heard a clapping sound.

Someone was fucking applauding!

Every one of the team whipped around, only to see a steel and orange armored figure appear.

"Felix!" Carolina growled, her body tensing up and readying herself for a fight against the asshole standing before them.

"I am pretty impressed, you guys. I knew that you would act dumbly, but being dumb enough to attack us here directly is just really fucking stupid. Even for you, Kimball." said armored soldier sneered, standing there with his arms crossed and waiting for the group to move as they were temporarily unable to move from shock.

Wash's head whipped around again when he noticed a scent hanging in the air.

"Locus!" he growled.

Said mercenary didn't say another word, but revealed himself by removing his invisibility and joined Felix's side.

The mercenaries' eyes immediately settled on the werecat standing there with his teeth bared into a slight sneer.

"Oh, I see you brought the wolven's mate?" Felix's eyes shortly settled on Grif before he again fixed

Carolina with his stare, "That's nice. I am sure your mate can hear you already. He's not far away actually and this hall here is connected to the place he is kept. But I doubt you'll even get past me." He sneered with a menacing grin, playing with his fucking knife and playing the cool asshole.

"You think we will be staying here to talk to you any longer, asshole?" Wash asked in a cold tone that was almost as menacing as Felix's, which was rather odd given the fact that Wash wasn't really one to act like that given the fact that he was around kids all day long.

As if on cue, which actually was already planned in the Sanctuary as they thought on Felix and Locus ambushing them, they stormed towards the mercenaries, who were momentarily surprised by this blatant attack.

Before they managed to close the door with the emergency-button hidden in one of the walls to their back, about half of the group had already gotten through. Unfortunately, there were some left behind who were not able to pass through the door.

Distress bubbled up in Grif's chest at the thought of not being able to get to his mate. The only thing he could do was lie his head back and howl loudly, hoping that Simmons would pick up on this sound and answer him when he was able to.

The door closed without any answer from his mate and Grif felt dread pool in his gut. If Simmons didn't reply, did that mean that he was already gone?

No, that couldn't be! Grif fought down the panic in his chest. He would have felt that!

Simmons was alive and he would reply to his howl when he was able to. Maybe it was just taking him some time.

But as Felix had said, this room here was connected to the place where they were holding Simmons and he would hear Grif's howl.

"Was that some kind of goodbye for your mate?" Felix asked with a mock sympathetic tone in his voice.

"Fuck you, asshole." Grif growled, standing there with his hackles raised and ready to attack this asshole where he stood and rip his throat out with his bare human fingers.

"Well, you sure are an important abomination of nature Hargrove desperately wants to have, but I still would prefer having you dead than alive." Felix again looked at him, mustering him with unconcealed interest and disgust.

Grif didn't really know how to react on this situation. He knew that Simmons had to be somewhere around here and he desperately wanted to find him. But at the same time he had to look out for Kai and defend his pack in case he needed to fight.

It was dilemma, really. And at the moment, when he couldn't help his mate, he would have to stay here and wait until he was able to do so. So log he would look out for Kai and fight alongside with the other inhabitants of the Sanctuary to make it possible to get to Simmons or to free him from his holding cell.

Grif desperately tried to push the thought of Simmons possibly being dead aside and only thought on what he would do with his mate when they were back at the Sanctuary.


	56. Chapter 56

Staying behind with a group in the entrance area when everything could go to shit within minutes really was bad.

Tucker was standing there with Junior and Aki by his side. Others were gathering around him, as if seeking comfort.

He had to be the confident parent both for his son and Aki, who had become something like a daughter to him, although he felt like panicking himself.

He knew that something was off. It was way too quiet right now and he just knew that someone had found out about their attack and had ambushed them.

They only needed to do something incredibly stupid and something that none of their enemies would see coming to potentially turn the tables again.

But what exactly?

He didn't remember the blueprints himself, but…

"Matthews."

"Uh, yeah?" the young man asked, getting up from his crouching position that he had gotten into in order to help soothe Hera.

He exchanged a quick look with his boyfriend who then took over the task of comforting Hera for him while the Empath walked over to the Incubus.

"You have the blueprints memorized?" the dark skinned man asked, getting a nod as an answer.

"Where's the control room?"

Matthews fell silent, obviously sifting through the blueprints in his mind before answering, "There is one about one story down. If I am remembering correctly, it's the main control room."

"Sounds like a plan." Tucker answered right away, earning a confused blink from the empath.

"We're going to do something stupid by raiding that fucking control room and blowing it up." Tucker grinned broadly as the others contemplated his plan.

"That sounds extremely stupid, but it could work out." Bitters said after a moment, Hera having calmed down enough to only hide behind Bitters and not flutter around nervously.

"Okay, then let's go!" Palomo cheered beside them, which made Bitters groan and roll his eyes.

They split up into two groups.

The assault group consisted of six adults and the children they were watching over who refused to leave them, while the other twenty-four people stayed in the entrance area hidden and making sure that they wouldn't get caught too easily.

Matthews took the lead with Tucker, both starting to walk down one of the side hallways and not the one the others took when going through the facility previously.

Sneaking down the stairs, they made sure that nobody could ambush them. It was a closed-up area that you could only access from below or above where there was a door for each floor. It looked like a hidden staircase to help ensure that not everyone would head there all the time.

Given that the enemy seemed to think that they would attack only to get the Abnormals freed, they seemed to have forgotten all about guarding the control room.

Tucker snorted. It looked as though Felix's arrogance had gone to his head in this case.

When they rounded a corner, they could see a bunch of guards standing there.

Jumping back, Tucker grabbed his son's collar as he placed his hand over the boy's mouth to make him stay silent.

Okay, not arrogant then but quite smart. Down here they couldn't make a fast exit if caught and would get hunted down one by one.

Assholes!

"Hey, Matthews?"

The Empath looked at him questioningly, "What?"

"How good are you with illusions?" Tucker's gaze was fixed on the guy coming around the corner they were standing in just then.

"In what way?" Matthews gulped nervously when the man came closer.

"One guy. Make him yours." Tucker intentionally chose those words to make sure the kids wouldn't catch on to what he wanted Matthews to do.

They were all old enough now to know that not everybody could be friends, but still...

"I can try." Matthews answered, fixating the guy with his gaze.

It didn't take long for the guy to stop abruptly and look around the area in confusion.

Tucker and Bitters advised the kids to cover their ears, with Bitters doing so for Hera.

The guy started walking towards the group of other guards with his gun raised as if on auto pilot.

Moments later, he was the last man standing there before he finally lifted his gun and shot his own brains out of his head as well.

"Okay." Tucker breathed out, "Let's do it."

Sheila took over the care of the kids, making sure that they wouldn't see too much while their parents started walking through the human carnage towards the control room.

They were able to enter without much of a hassle and soon stood inside the room. There were tons of monitors, keyboards, panels, and control units.

Matthews walked to the panels, studying them, "I guess I could handle them. What should I do?"

He turned halfway around to Tucker, waiting for the Incubus' orders.

Said man shortly contemplated the question before answering.

"Let's cause some trouble. Free the Abnormals." A shit eating grin appeared on his features when he thought about the confused faces of the guards when the doors suddenly opened and all of the captured Abnormals would storm out to their freedom.

Matthews nodded and started entering some codes as the others stared at the screens showing the cells. With a click, the doors to all the cells swung open and the Abnormals stormed out and overran the completely perplexed guards.

"Okay, now we leave some presents here and get the fuck out." Tucker put his backpack down and started taking out the bars of C4 explosives they had brought with them.

Four of them: Bitters, Matthews, Tucker, and James started putting up the C4 explosives, setting up the timer for two hours.

That should be enough time for the others to haul ass before shit started to hit the fan.

When the explosives went off here, it would cause a chain reaction which would make all panels and electrical devices remotely connected to the main control room explode inside the facility.

After that was done, they closed the door and made sure nobody would be able to get back in there by having Lopez twist the door effectively so that it was jammed.

Afterwards, they returned to their kids and Sheila before heading back towards the rest of the group. They were still there waiting for the rest of them to come back from their side mission to the control room, and they hadn't heard anything negative or otherwise from the others so far.

Luckily, they had James with them who happened to be a Telepath. So he could always get into contact with North who could tell him about the status of the others.

James just informed them that they were okay, that some of them had managed to break through while the others, including North, were trapped with Felix, Locus, and an unknown guy that the Grif siblings seemed to be reacting rather violently toward.

So far, that meant that the only casualties were on the enemy's side and that everyone was still pretty much alive then. That was at least somewhat comforting to know, although Tucker would rather be fighting alongside them than waiting here.

On the other hand, he needed to be there for his kids, even more so since Wash was fighting in the first group and could possibly be killed. They really needed at least someone around to take care of a teenaged Junior and the even younger Aki.

James informed North about the deadline that was now one hour and forty-five minutes until the explosives would go off, North confirming it through their telepathic link. They knew that he would inform Kimball about it through his own telepathy.

So, all in all, they needed to just stay in the shadows here and wait for the others to return in order to hightail it the fuck out of there before shit started blowing up.

But that didn't change the fact that waiting fucking sucked!

Slowly sneaking around the floors, Katie Jensen followed the others. Being a Luck Eater doesn't necessarily mean that you're the bravest. After all, Luck Eaters aren't really as lucky themselves as many might think.

She had been one of the few to sneak through the open door before it had been locked shut for good measure by Felix.

They now were standing in a group in one of the hallways, looking around a bit lost. They had seen the blueprints in the situation room when they had been preparing for the mission, but in the end it had been Matthews and Wash who had remembered the plan inside and out… not her.

Sure, she knew one thing or another about the building here and had seen the blueprints every other day, but she still couldn't tell which floor they were in exactly or which wing.

If this was the wing where the rather dangerous and vicious Abnormals were being kept hostage, they were fucked.

Unfortunately, they couldn't use the radio as a jammer was around here somewhere too.

Katie looked around but couldn't find anything beyond the red blinking light of a camera. Well, being observed would certainly go a long way in helping to calm her nerves, she thought sarcastically and rather bitterly.

Carefully she followed Havors down the hallway, trying not to freak out or cause the others to freak out with her nervous behavior.

It was strange. It was quiet here.

Katie thought that the Abnormals would be rather nervous upon hearing a wolven howling. But on the other hand, she could imagine that the rooms could possibly be soundproof in order to make sure people on the outside wouldn't hear anyone screaming.

They had just arrived at another door and opened it, when a clicking sound behind her made her freeze in her steps and turn around with a horrified expression.

The doors were slowly opening.

And even if they weren't in the wing with the most dangerous inhabitants, some of them could still be cranky and take out their anger on the first person they see.

And indeed, when the doors opened, most of the Abnormals looked rather confused as to why they were suddenly released.

Jensen was able to see different hybrid-types of Abnormals who were mostly a mix between a human and some kind of animal, though others were even a mix of two animals.

But there was also a Succubi who showed up: a woman with black wings who looked rather young, although her eyes betrayed her actual age.

There was a Diacom and an Abnormal she already knew from earlier. He had a pouch in his abdomen where he was able to carry almost everything to anywhere without it being detected.

There also was an Abnormal who made Katie gulp. It was a feline type of guy, looking a bit like a werecat. But they were from a different tribe. They developed along with the werecats but were completely different.

Their eyes were slotted like a cat's and they were able to roar like a big one. Except for that and sometimes a bit of feline behavior, they looked like a human.

The most striking thing about them was that they had two hearts on the right side of their ribcage.

Cunningham behind her only whispered, "Go to the other room and close the door when we're all safe. This guy—"

He couldn't say more as said feline-kind of guy, Katie couldn't remember the name of this species, grabbed Cunningham by the neck and bit through his throat without hesitation.

The young man made a gurgling sound, but Katie was sure he was already dead as she heard his neck snap.

The snapping sound was like a starting bang.

The whole room broke into chaos with every Abnormal starting to run towards the door Felix had just shut.

The guy, after having bitten through Cunningham's throat and leaving the body bleeding on the ground, roared again, causing the others to run away from the door in panic.

Jensen had to revise her opinion on this kind of Abnormal. They weren't just bad tempered. That was the underestimate of the year!

This guy was a walking volcano, exploding because of whatever little reason he might have.

On the other hand, the volcano was helpful at certain points. With his height and brute strength, he ran into the door and more or less just crashed it down.

This bald, dark skinned man (with was a rather unusual trait for this kind of Abnormal) only roared again and attacked Felix, who only managed to avoid his attack with a rather ungraceful jump to the side.

Katie and the others emerged with the other Abnormals in tow, the group starting to guide the Abnormals towards the exit they were keeping and to the trucks waiting outside.

Left behind was the group around Kimball, but they were the best fighters and Katie was sure they would be just fine there.

They had other things to deal with at present.

Wash, as well as the other Freelancers, were baffled at the appearance of the big guy.

"Maine?" the werecat asked incredulously, but he only got a growl as a reply and the guy targeting him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it before but after the project, this guy here was a great help for our scientific research. Although he tried to flee and kill me, which is just sad. This guy just hates my guts. Anyways, during the fight his throat was injured. He can't speak." Felix explained casually while trying to avoid other attacks from the huge man.

Wash felt anger surge in his veins.

Maine would never attack someone out of the blue. And he was sure that Felix 'injured' his throat just for fun because he simply felt like it.

"Maine, calm down!" Wash tried again, but the other man only growled and attacked the werecat.

"Wash!" North was calling him, trying to interfere but getting swept out of the way by the other man like he was a small kid and not a huge, muscular man.

The telepath landed in a corner, lying there dazed after hitting his head.

Maine kept attacking the werecat, trying to somehow get to his throat.

Wash and all the others knew that Felks, as their type was called, killed by ripping open the victim's throat.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Felix snapped his fingers as if he forgot to close the window when a thunderstorm was about to break loose, "He kind of lost his mind while staying with us. He's the Meta now. So I guess I have to disappoint you, but this here," He pointed to the Felk, "Isn't your friend Maine anymore."

Wash wasn't sure what he should think.

This guy here had once been his best friend during Freelancer, calming him down when he felt like freaking out because he often was struggling to keep up with the others. He was the one who encouraged him to keep up with whatever he wanted to do and who would sit with him and listen to his nervous ramblings.

This guy here might look like his old friend Maine but was a raging, angry, and tearing monster. He was only following his instincts and ripping apart whatever throat he could get between his teeth.

"Maine. It's me, Wash!" he pleaded, avoiding another attack of his once best friend.

The beast standing there in his friend's body growled angrily and attacked him again, not even flinching at Wash's words.

"Wash," it was Carolina who was interrupting now, everyone else keeping out of their business, "This isn't Maine anymore. Maine is already dead and this monster just happens to live in his body."

The Phoenix had tried, but Wash shook his head, "No way!"

After minutes of fighting and trying to reach Maine with his words, Wash had to admit that Carolina was right.

He hated when Carolina was right about things like this. He didn't want her to be right!

This short moment of inattention, however, gave the Felk the opportunity to get past Wash's defense and make a grab for his neck.

Carolina, York, and all the others around there were tense, but they all knew that if Maine wanted to kill Wash, he would have already done it without any of them being able to interfere whatsoever.

What happened next, however, made Wash go completely rigid for several seconds.

Under the growling of the beast having his fangs only inches away from his throat, he could hear him saying something.

It took the werecat what felt like ages to process what he was saying, though effectively those were only mere seconds.

Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply, steeling himself for what was to come.

Before either Felix or Locus could react, Wash had pulled the knife out of its sheath on his right leg and rammed it into Maine's chest up to its hilt.

A massive shudder ran through the man, before he started collapsing.

Wash managed to catch him, bringing him to the ground gently.

He leaned over, hearing his once best friend' voice underneath the gurgling of the blood flooding his lungs.

Those were his last words. He closed his eyes and was gone in the next few moments.

Gently, Wash laid the body down, biting his cheek to not cry or fall into a rage fit before he turned around to Felix with a neutral, passive mask plastered on his face.

Felix responded to the werecat's stare with his trademark cocky smile and a raised eyebrow, "Doing it that easily? You really are coldhearted, Wash. I am shocked."

The fake shock in his voice only fueled Wash's anger more as he still stared the guy down with his impatient glare.

Later, after all of this was over and done with and people were finally able to calm down and recuperate from everything that had occurred here, he would tell his fellow Freelancers and Tucker what Maine had said.

"Wash, please. Please kill me. I don't want to kill anymore. I don't want to lose it and kill again and again."

That was when Wash had reacted, destroying one of his hearts and injuring his lung heavily. It was only a minute or so after that when he died.

His last words were something Wash would only ever tell Tucker, after years of being together.

"Thank you, my friend."


	57. Chapter 57

It became completely still and silent in the hall after the Felk died, nobody really daring to say _anything_ as that could very well place Wash's wrath on whoever dared to say something out loud just then.

That was until Felix sighed dramatically, "Well, it looks like I'll just have to use other measures to get rid of you assholes."

Lifting his fingers to his mouth, he whistled loudly.

Moments later, they could hear a loud and annoyed growl in response, "I am no dog, asshole."

"Oh come on, you're practically one." Felix shot the man a wide shit eating grin.

Another growl was heard at that and a big figure with bluish black hair appeared in the doorway.

"This time you can't run away like the weeny coward you are. This time, we fight." The man said to Grif, almost piercing him with his glare.

Wash had never in his whole life seen the usually so laidback wolvens going that rigid before.

Kai was completely still, breath held and eyes wide with fear.

Looking over to Grif, Wash could see that his hackles were standing straight up, as a growl started to curl Grif's human lips so his fangs were bared.

He didn't know much about the whole pack thing, but he knew that this was bad. And this had to do with something about dominance.

And indeed, it wasn't only Wash who sucked in a breath when he heard Grif bite out one single name.

"Cole!"

They all knew that Cole had been the reason his mom had left Grif and Kai after their dad had been killed in a fight by him.

Wash calculated that he must be about thirty years older than Grif, but due to the enhanced living period of the wolvens, this was nothing but a number in their ages.

"Are you going to hand over your pack and run like the coward you are, or are you going to try to fight me and get killed?" Cole sneered, regarding the Alpha wolven opposite of him and showing clearly that he wasn't really thinking about losing the battle himself.

Rokash underneath Grif was shifting angrily, wanting nothing more than breaking through to the surface to attack the guy standing there with a cocky smile. Instead of doing just that, he only growled menacingly, and made sure the man did not come too close to him or his pack standing behind him.

Kai, the aforementioned pack member, growled aggressively too to make it clear that she wouldn't be a submissive bitch the moment Cole somehow managed to take over the lead of the pack she was a part of.

She had gone through too much shit to submit to that asshole. She would never do that in her entire life!

Grif knew that and he was happy to hear the growl from Kai that confirmed to him that he needed to fight for his pack even though he was inexperienced.

He didn't want to fight, even less with the guy standing there before them as he was much more experienced from his fights for the packs he had taken over, but in the end since Grif was being challenged, he would have to accept the challenge and fight.

If he lost or chose to run away, then he would be letting Simmons and Kai become a part of Cole's pack even against their wishes. That would cause both his mate and his sister to remember him as a coward.

He was extremely conflicted given all of the information flooding through his brain just then, but when it came time to push and shove, he would fight like a fucking madman for his pack even if it ultimately meant dying for them.

Everyone, as well as Kai and Simmons if he were here, knew that Grif wasn't a coward. He might like to take it easy and avoid fighting if possible, but he wasn't a coward.

When he was forced to, he was able to fight like a madman. And thanks to quite a few skirmishes in the Sanctuary, he had collected some experience when it came to fighting.

This experience came from his mom and another Alpha wolven having been in the Sanctuary for some months after they had found him with a rather badly infected bullet wound.

He had put them all in their belonged places but not without a few bite marks, and a lot of experience taken out of those fights.

"You gonna turn or do you want to fight me in this fat human form?" the other Alpha sneered, already starting to turn himself.

Soon a bluish black mutt stood there, fangs bared and snarling dangerously.

The bluish black fur with white highlights made it clear that he was from the Starwalker clan, although this seemed to make the asshole even cockier. He looked so fucking proud and thought so less of Grif that it made him angry even just to look at him.

The way he kept himself was an affront to all opponents who were challenged by the asshole showing off like that.

Kai backed down a bit more giving her brother space, while Grif made a step towards the wolven standing there.

"You really just can't slack off, huh?" he asked the wolven with an annoyed tone since he had to fight, although his body language betrayed what he was really feeling.

He only got another snarl in return.

Scoffing, the older Grif sibling turned around to his fellow teammates from the Sanctuary.

"Don't interfere. This is something between wolvens."

He didn't wait for Kimball to reply or for any of the others to say anything as he turned back around and started changing too.

Only minutes later, two huge wolvens attacked each other with loud growling and ferocious barking.

Simmons sat straight on his thin mattress when he heard the howling.

He almost couldn't believe it, but that was _Grif_!

He could always recognize his voice and the way he howled out of a million howls.

He was immediately on his feet, feeling a bit dizzy momentarily when his blood pressure couldn't keep up with the sudden change of position.

It almost couldn't be, but he knew that was Grif.

They were here. They came to rescue him.

This realization made his whole body mobilize energy he didn't think he had anymore since he had been suffering through so many torments recently: the lack of enough water and food, and the lack of _Grif_ in general being top among them.

But here he was, pressing against the door and feeling as energetically as in his best times.

Carefully, he stepped back to the opposite wall, before accelerating and slamming his shoulder into the door. But the door wouldn't move an inch. Instead, he was rubbing his shoulder and cursing rather loudly.

But he wouldn't give up now. Not now!

Again, he went to the opposite side of the space to get some distance for speed.

He accelerated and rammed into the door in the very moment that the door opened with an almost inaudible click.

Due to his momentum, the redhead flew forward, causing him to stumble and almost hit his head on the opposite wall of the hallway.

He barely avoided it by turning away and hitting the wall with his back instead. It shortly pressed the air out of his lungs, but he soon got his breathing back in check again.

For the first time, he was outside and he looked around. He was in a long hallway. It looked like they had kept him alone here, making sure he wouldn't be able to hear the others as he seemed to be something of a special "VIP" guest here.

Well, as much as he had enjoyed the stay here, it was time to check out of this horrible "hotel."

Stretching his nose to the air, he smelled it and soon had a faint scent of blood in his nose that he started following.

The trail he had followed led him directly to Cunningham, who was lying on the floor like a haphazardly thrown away doll, eyes open—milky and full with the horror he must have seen in his last moments.

Carefully kneeling down beside the dead body he gulped to keep his empty stomach in check as he felt it revolting due to the overwhelming stench of blood here.

Gently, he closed Cunningham's eyes, not being able to leave him there with his eyes wide open. He had seen enough terror, he shouldn't see even more horror after he had passed away.

Sure, it was illogical.

Cunningham had been a mix between a human and a German Shepherd, not a deathling… but Simmons just couldn't pass by and leave him like that.

However, he recoiled as if having gotten an electrical shock when he wanted to pass through the slightly ajar door to the main area where he could hear a fight going on.

Well, considering the fact that he saw Cole and Grif fighting like hell for the lead of Grif's pack, getting an electrical shock would have been a massage.

Hiding behind the door, he shortly breathed through to get his breathing back in check again. Inside him, he felt Kiran move. He was impatient. He wanted to go to his mate, but as much as Simmons would have loved to do exactly that himself, he needed a plan.

He couldn't just stumble in. That would cause Grif to become inattentive and would most likely mean his subsequent death.

Grif would be stunned, but he needed to make sure that Cole was even more stunned than Grif was to even the odds.

How about attacking him?

Simmons contemplated Kiran's idea for a moment.

During the last couple of days, he had been meditating a lot and getting to know his second half better and better with every passing moment they spent on eye level. Soon, they had started acting as one person, with Simmons understanding Kiran's thoughts clearly as day, as Kiran did his.

They rarely ever had a dispute over what to do since they got so extremely well attuned to one another.

This had also provoked something else inside of him.

It was like, when you reach a certain level of… let's say synchronization between wolven and human, you unlocked something ingrained in your DNA.

The hidden knowledge you had when you truly were a wolven. No matter if you were a turned one or a Pureblood.

This knowledge must have been in the DNA as previously mentioned and he now had unlimited access to that, since he and Kiran were like one person now.

They still had their own unique characteristic traits, but in general, you couldn't tell them apart anymore.

Even Simmons' green eyes now took up an emerald hue, the red disappearing completely out of his left eye.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: since he was able to gain access to the hidden knowledge of the wolvens from when they still were wolvens and not a blend of wolves and wolvens, he knew a lot of things.

Such as that wolvens usually fought in teams when it came to defending or attacking the pack.

The Alpha's mate would fight together with him or her, earning the respect of the other members of the pack and securing his or her place as the second in charge.

An Alpha without a mate usually was outnumbered and had no chance to lead a pack since the mates also evened each other out. The weakness of one was the strength of the other.

Breathing through his mouth one last time, he let Kiran take over and started changing to his wolven form that he hadn't taken up in weeks. Since he had been brought here, to be accurate.

It felt good to finally be able to turn into his wolven form again, giving into the pleading of his wolven side after weeks of having to fight down that urge.

When Kiran opened his eyes, emerald eyes with a hue of other shades of green, he heard the fight going on.

The wolven felt hot for the fight, adrenaline rushing through his veins and making him eager and aggressive.

He would show this asshole Cole how their pack handled things!

Cole was with his back to him, and, thanks to a power outage in the lower levels, it was dark in there and Simmons was very well camouflaged.

Now, however, he shot out of the door with a bark blended with a growl and jumped on a completely baffled Cole who was not able to even turn around when Kiran's fangs sunk into the wolven's neck.

He kept the piece of meat in his mouth, bringing Cole down to the ground with a pained growl and keeping the Alpha effectively in place.

Looking over to Grif, he could hear Simmons laughing in his head.

The fat fuck was standing there with his mouth hanging open, the wolven equivalent to human gaping. His eyes were wide and round, and his mouth was still hanging fucking open after a few seconds had passed.

What a ridiculous view.

Snorting, he managed to get his message across and get Grif to snap out of his reverie effectively.

The change in behavior was massive. There was nothing left of the gaping wolven from moments before, now there was the fighting wolven back in his place.

Hackles raised, fangs bared, and a rage burning in his eyes that would have made Simmons back down as he still was an Omega after all.

When Simmons let go of the wolven, he could hear Grif already attacking, managing to avoid Cole's jaws snapping into nothing where Grif's flank had been previously.

The wolven's head, however, whipped around and snapped together—crushing Cole's right front leg between his teeth.

The crunching sound blended together with a pained howl from Cole.

Simmons more felt it by instinct than really realizing that Cole tried to bite him. Before his enemy was even able to open his mouth, Simmons was out of his vicinity. He was still standing there with hackles, tail, and ears raised, growling menacingly as he observed Grif letting go of the wolven too.

Grif returned to Simmons' side with all of their friends from the Sanctuary at their back, their enemies on the opposite side of them.

Cole was bleeding out of several smaller bite wounds. Kiran could tell that the broken leg was the worst the wolven had gotten.

So Rokash, this asshole, was going easy on him. He didn't want to kill him, rather just to dominate him.

Simmons snorted in Kiran's head, informing him that Grif most likely will dominate Cole to make him lead the huge pack in Hawaii with Grif only giving him orders about how he wants them to behave. He was a lazy fuck, after all. He would let others do the work and he would have as less work as possible to do.

Kiran chuckled in his head, agreeing with Simmons' conclusion, before again focusing on the fight at hand.

Grif and Cole were still staring each other down, although Cole was trying to win a staring match against an Alpha and his mate.

It took several minutes but eventually the single fighter lowered his tail, ears, and head, letting them hear a submissive whine.

This was the sign they were waiting for. Whilst Kiran was staying a wolven and made sure Cole wouldn't do anything funny, Grif started turning back to his human form until he was standing there in his orange armor in front of the defeated wolven.

Kiran took the opportunity to turn around to Kai, only to see an overly relieved face staring back at him with happiness and fondness written all over her face.

He couldn't help but snort at that. The look was ridiculous coming from her. In return, the female wolven flipped him off and walked over to one of the pouches they had brought with them.

Taking out a maroon suit practically identical to the one that Grif had in orange and she had in yellow, she handed it to him.

"Hurry up and change. This thing adapts to our turning and additionally to you turning invisible."

Turning away, the redhead changed back and slipped into the suit before turning back again, only to see Grif still staring Cole down.

When Simmons was standing beside him, again feeling a bit weak in his knees from the sudden change, he could hear Grif starting to speak. A wolven snarl was underlying the whole speech.

"I won't kill you like you did my dad, asshole." He growled, making Cole lower his head even more, "You are going back to Hawaii and leading the pack there. But I will tell you how you will lead it, you understand?"

When no answer came, Grif growled loudly.

"I asked: do you understand!?" He barked out, the defeated wolven whining and now almost lying on the ground.

Grif, obviously satisfied by this answer, nodded before pointing towards the exit, "You're going upstairs now and to Sarge, the crazy guy with the shotgun. You're going to get your injuries treated by Dr. Grey and as soon you're well again, you will return to Hawaii. I will give you exact instructions when I'm back. And don't try anything funny or I won't go easy on you anymore, understood!?"

The wolven whined again, starting to run towards the exit with his body held low and his tail between his rear legs. It really looked hilarious how he walked, but it was the best confirmation of Grif's dominance.

But neither Grif or Simmons could relax just yet as they still had a problem ahead.

Felix and Locus.

And Felix grinning maniacally just then didn't make Simmons feel any more relaxed.


	58. Chapter 58

"Well, well, well… I am surprised. I didn't think you would ever find your way back out of this hellhole."

Although Felix saw all his chances sinking lower and lower, he still was the nonchalant asshole he always acted as.

Simmons only snorted in response, "Don't underestimate the bonds of mates." he growled out menacingly, looking Felix dead in the eye.

Felix only replied to his glance without batting an eye.

Behind him, Simmons could hear Kimball muttering something into the radio. It sounded oddly like an order for the others to retreat, that they would close up the lines later.

"Are you trying to save these abominations of nature?" Felix was looking at him with Locus behind him only making a notion with his head towards Wash, who had put the dead Felk aside together with North's help.

"I am seriously asking myself who is the bigger abomination. Us or you." Grif snarled from beside Simmons, gripping the handle of the pistol he had brought with him tightly.

The others didn't say anything but it was evident what they thought about this comment.

In Simmons' book, Felix definitely was the bigger abomination than the Abnormals. They were all mutations, maybe even forced ones due to special events like in Simmons' case with the wolven. So all in all, it was a natural process which would continue to happen so long as humanity existed.

However, Felix was an asshole. This was a fact. And he hated Abnormals. That jerk.

Staring Felix dead in the eye, he waited for the asshole to make his next move. Through Kimball's radio, he could hear Tucker confirming that they are all out and on their way to a safe place.

"You know, Kimball, I really hope you gave all of your guests some days off. The weather around the Sanctuary could get rather violent during the next few hours. There could be hail falling down. Bombing hail." the steel and orange armored man mocked opposite of them.

Kimball didn't seem to be fazed by this news, or she was schooling her expression perfectly so nobody could see her shock.

"I really appreciate your concern, Felix, but please be assured that everything is taken care of." She replied with her finest English accent – since she originally was from England.

Felix frowned, extremely annoyed at her response since that obviously hadn't been how he had anticipated her reaction to be.

Now feeling like he was concerned about the Abnormals and that Kimball was a step ahead of his plans made him extremely annoyed.

Simmons smiled somewhat triumphantly. They weren't safe yet, but this provoking would make it less and less possible for Felix to keep his calm. He would snap at some point.

Since there were only Felix and Locus left, Simmons shortly contemplated their chances. They had more people, but these two were reckless and on top of that trained mercenaries so it could still get to be a bit difficult to win in any case. There could be casualties actually considering the fact that they weren't trained soldiers aside from some of their group members.

Carolina growled beside Simmons, "Quit fooling around and get serious already. I am up for 'talking' with you."

Cracking her knuckles menacingly, she stepped forward.

Wash took up his position beside her, waiting for Locus to attack him. He already knew that Locus had a special interest in him, he had seen it most recently when it came to getting Maine to attack him.

All of that shit about Tucker that Felix had pulled must have been something Locus had wanted him to do.

Where Felix was plain sadistic and psychotic, Locus was a cool calculator and tried to find out as many weaknesses of his enemy as possible before attacking. He preferred trying to get rid of his enemies in other ways than a direct confrontation.

North behind them took up the dead Felk and also started leaving towards the exit, bringing the dead body back to where they were situated to bury him properly in the aftermath.

Felix only grinned psychotically before snapping forward with his body, a blade suddenly appearing in his right hand and aiming for Carolina's left axilla.

But Carolina wouldn't be Carolina if she didn't have a fabulous reaction time.

She immediately turned halfway around so that the knife would miss her completely and grabbed Felix's arm to throw him around and make him fall on the ground with his own momentum.

Grif's pack and Kimball started retreating towards the wall where the exit was and watched the conflict underway.

York didn't retreat, but helped Wash in fighting Locus.

Felix's attacks were wide and forceful, full of anger and sadistic fantasies he wanted to make come true. He looked like a sadistic, angry elephant on a rampage.

Locus' attacks were straightforward and methodical. He was calculating and capable of finding every hole in his enemy's defense. He was like a snake, waiting for the right time to strike and doing that with deadly efficiency.

Simmons could see that York and Wash had quite some trouble with keeping him covered and away from Carolina.

They manage to land some blows from time to time, but they got just as much hits themselves as they were able to land on Locus.

He mostly avoided or dodged their attacks so the initial harm wasn't as big as they thought it would be. Locus simply was too experienced and he wasn't allowing himself to let the others destroy his calm. As long as he was staying so calm and focused, it would be difficult to get through his defenses.

On the other side, Carolina and Felix were fighting but the phoenix looked like this whole thing was more of a piece of cake than hard work for her.

Which, and this was rather obvious, made Felix slowly but surely extremely angry.

Simmons could see the anger starting to manifest in every fiber of Felix's body. Even the air around this guy smelled like pure anger.

The only thing that became dangerous to Carolina was that fucking knife Felix held in his hand. None of them needed to look closely at it to know that the fucking knife was poisoned with a rather fast acting poison.

While Wash and York's fight contained more evading and avoiding, Carolina compelled Felix to retreat slowly which made him even angrier.

Sometime into the fight, Felix sprang forward with a cry trying to at least scratch Carolina so the poison could do its deadly work.

Due to his momentum, Felix missed the redhead only by an inch, crashing into the other group of fighting men.

The poisoned knife cut through fabric and flesh, effectively injuring and poisoning some of the people fighting this rather uneven match.

When all of the fighters were back on their feet and got some space between them and the others, the knife wasn't in Felix's hand anymore.

But neither was it in Carolina's, Wash's, or York's possession.

When they looked up, all together, including Simmons, they could see the knife located in Locus' left shoulder, right between the collar bone and the shoulder blade.

It wasn't a deadly injury per se, but the poisoned knife did its work efficiently.

In shock, the mercenary pulled out the knife and stared at it, looking rather astonished that someone got through his defenses.

"Well, you hadn't been the one I initially wanted to hit, but well… what a shame." Felix looked at his fellow mercenary, shrugging indifferently and turning back around.

Locus for his part was standing beside the group, still trying to process what happened exactly. He might be fast on the uptake when it came to other things, but right now, he was struggling to understand what exactly happened to him during the last couple of seconds.

When Simmons saw him lifting his head, he could see the extremely green hue on his face that started to spread over his whole body before he fell down, lifeless.

"Well, that's the effect of the poison. On a normal human, its effect is within two minutes. The Abnormal DNA delays the effect up to twenty tops, however it's mostly around five minutes. The longer time someone lives, the more painful this poison gets." Felix explained in a matter of fact voice, nudging Locus' dead body with the tip of his foot.

"Well, nice to know that I at least know what will await me for the last minutes of my life." York pressed out between his clenched teeth.

That was the moment every one of the Sanctuary inhabitants realized that something was terribly wrong with one of their kind, York.

Falling down on his knees, he held a cut on his right upper arm which was bleeding. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

The blood that was visible from the wound turned eerily green, just like Locus' body had turned to. And Simmons had no doubt that York's blood would turn green inside his body too, as it was the only explanation as why Locus had taken on such an awful green hue.

Memories of the slow and painful death of Grif and Kai's mom sprung up in Simmons' mind. Moana had to suffer for hours until she had been finally released from her pain.

The black blood that had seeped from her wound and her starting to cough up that very same blackened blood had made Simmons want to cry back then.

Seeing York like that, Simmons was pretty sure that his blood would turn green instead of black and that it would be an extremely slow and painful death. It wasn't only the poison that made him think that. It was also his face, contorted in pain, which gave away that it was awfully painful for York.

Even more painful than Moana's death since she had been drugged up to the hairline to not suffer too endlessly.

The moment York started falling to the right, Simmons noticed a movement beside him and moments later he could see Carolina dashing towards York at a break-neck speed.

"York!"

Simmons had never heard her exclaiming something so desperately and full of worry before.

Merely moments before York hit the floor, Carolina managed to catch him. Simmons could see that she was keeping him in a strong, yet gentle embrace.

It was deadly silent, even Felix shut his trap for once.

"Hey, there…" York muttered when he noticed that he was in Carolina's arms.

"Stop talking, you're going to spread the poison further like that." She replied, frantically trying to find a solution to the problem at hand.

York lifted his hand, wincing at the pain that shot through his body at the action and laid it on Carolina's cheek, "You know… as well as me that it's… too late for me anyway... There's no way… I am going to survive this…"

Simmons could hear the blood starting to fill up his lungs, making it difficult for the ghost to speak.

Carolina leaned into the gentle touch on her cheek, holding York's hand close to her cheek.

"I refuse!" she exclaimed, tears starting to roll down her cheeks and dripping onto York's arms and face.

"That's no order… you can decide… to not follow, sweetie… I am going to die… no matter if you refuse or not…" he laughed lowly before continuing, "But I am happy… to see you're not willing to let me go… that easily…" his breathing started to rattle and began coming out unevenly.

"I don't want to let you go after what we went through." She replied lowly, probably too low for anyone else not being a werecat or wolven to catch up on.

"I know… I love you." York muttered, leaning his head against Carolina's chest, "Just… let me rest here… for some time, okay?"

Carolina was crying fully now, her shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs but she still forced herself to smile, "Okay, just rest here."

"Yeah… See you later."

"See you… Good night." Carolina answered in between low sobs as York closed his eyes and his hand went limp.

Carefully, Carolina first laid his hand on his stomach, before laying the body down on the ground and getting up.

"Guys, please stay out of this." She started, not waiting for everyone to answer before turning to North, "Can you take care of York for me, North?"

The telepath seemed startled at what to do, but then he smiled sadly and nodded, "I will. Be careful."

With that, he came up to Carolina and heaved York's body on his shoulders and brought him out of the danger zone.

"I can't promise that." Carolina replied. It was obvious she was angry.

Simmons already had a suspicion about what she was going to do, but seeing it made his blood freeze. He definitely preferred never making Carolina _that_ angry.

Simmons and the others retreated to the back of the room, trying to press up to the wall as closely as possible.

She was a Phoenix for fuck's sake, but the other and even better reason for keeping away was that you better keep away when Carolina was so angry. She could become a real devil when she was really, really pissed off.

However, put the fact aside that it was Carolina and that she was fucking angry, they all found out another reason for keeping away when a Phoenix was angry.

They could turn to fire.

Simmons remembered once having read an old tale about Phoenixes and that they could engulf themselves in flames when they were really angry. Which also explained why Phoenixes were fireproof as it wouldn't be really helpful for them to burn themselves when using their abilities to fight.

Anyway, with each step that Carolina took, the fire started spreading out and getting hotter. She really must be angry since the fire wasn't a dull red: rather it was a yellowish hue, almost turning into blue, which showed that the temperature of the fire must be immensely high.

"You're going to pay for what you did!" Carolina's voice growled deeply over the sound of the fire.

Without even waiting for an answer from her opponent, she dashed forward—aiming for Felix's jaw.

But for being as astonished as the others some seconds ago, he managed to get a hold of himself rather fast as he was evading her attack in an almost playful way.

"Oh, you're angry?" he asked in a teasing tone, trying to heat up Carolina's anger further, only to get her to make mistakes and give an opening in her defense.

But every one of her friends, especially the Freelancers, knew that she had too much self-control to ever lose her calm that way to an easy enemy during a fight.

Evading the stabs with the knife Felix had started with, they moved back and forth, both not finding an opening in the defense of their enemy.

Simmons could tell that this fight would be one where they both had to deplete their energy reserves only to be able to find an opening in the defense of the opponent. It was crucial not to be the first to show signs of weaknesses since this would mean certain death. You had to be the first to strike, not the first to open the defense, if only for a notch.

With amazement and awe all of the people gathered in the room watched the fight progress and how they both fought their best fight. Carolina evaded and attacked whenever she could, blocking and attacking.

It wasn't that they wouldn't land a hit, both were able to get some hits on the opponent, though Felix never was able to land a hit with his knife, only with his fist.

However, overall it seemed as if Carolina had the upper hand slightly, as she was able to land more punches and hits on Felix than he could on her.

When Felix took a step back, he stumbled over the dead body of Locus and started to lose his balance…if only for a moment.

But this moment was enough for Carolina to attack him with her fists, making him step back some steps more before she landed a hit with her flat palm on Felix's solar plexus.

Everyone could see how her fire washed over Felix's armor and started eating away at his clothes.

At first, the mercenary stood there in total amazement—not being able to realize what had happened.

But when the heat started melting his flesh, he realized it and frantically tried to extinguish the fire with his bare hands. This only resulted in the fire starting to burn on his sleeves.

"A Phoenix's fire only extinguishes when the Phoenix wants it to." Carolina said, the fire enveloping her moments ago completely gone.

She watched the mercenary struggle as he stated to scream in pain.

"Burn in hell, you bastard!" Carolina growled, watching Felix screaming and writhing in unbelievable pain.

Simmons felt a bit of sympathy for Felix, though not by much. Being burned alive was not a good way to die. It was extremely painful and it was overall agonizing and cruel.

But that was about the only reason he felt sympathy – because he went through it as well.

But seeing the guy who had done so much harm to his mate, to Kai, to their mom, to York, to Carolina, and to almost everyone else in the Sanctuary, burn and scream in pain made him feel oddly satisfied.

Felix's flesh didn't burn up, it directly got charred from the immense heat of Carolina's fire while he was screaming until his vocal chords were burned up and not usable anymore.

After the screaming subsided, the burning form on the ground jerked a few more times before it went completely still.


	59. Chapter 59

Carolina let the fire go out after she was sure Felix was gone for good, before turning around to her brothers in arms from the times when they were working at the project together.

"I hope he burns in hell for it." She muttered again before walking over to North to caress York's lifeless cheek. His body was still resting on the big guy's shoulders.

"We hope so too. He earned the punishment, for sure." North replied sympathetically, resting a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Definitely. I only wish he wouldn't have caused so much harm to us beforehand." She replied, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"Shall we get going? I guess it's better to make a fast leave before the rest..." Kimball chimed in, careful to not put more salt on Carolina's open and bleeding wound than was absolutely necessary.

However, she stopped short when her radio suddenly went off.

She silently listened to the exchange over the airwaves before answering, "Got it. Kimball out."

After another second or two, she then turned back to the people standing around her, "Doyle radioed me. They infiltrated the building and put up explosives everywhere. We have to go."

Everyone nodded, even Carolina, and started to turn around to leave the building.

That was when Simmons noticed Locus' body, "What about Locus? He might be dead, but isn't a proper burial something we should do?"

Kimball stopped and turned around to look at the body lying there, "I guess that is what we should do, yes. North, would you mind letting Wash carry York while you take Locus?" she asked the big guy, knowing that Wash had an antipathy against Locus for his earlier obsession with him.

"Sure, I can do that." North replied with a smile, picking up on the reason of this unusual request and giving York to Wash before going to pick up the lifeless Locus.

"We have to hurry, Doyle said they would give us five minutes before everything starts blowing up. They already managed to gather information from a secluded computer in the lower stories of the buildings, but now we have to get moving." Kimball started to hurry their people even more, moving quickly herself, "He said the building is already pretty damaged from Tucker's action earlier and it could collapse any minute now."

Taking up on the urgent tone in her voice, everyone quickened their pace until they were practically running outside.

There they could already see Tucker and the others, including Doyle and Lopez's cousin, standing there with somewhat relieved expressions on their faces.

That was until they saw York hanging over Wash's shoulders.

Tucker was the first to run over to Wash to help him lie York down on a stretcher on the ground that Jensen and Palomo brought over.

"Shit, Wash, what happened?" he asked while trying to be as gentle with York as possible.

"Felix poisoned him. He stood no chance." The werecat silently replied. Tucker could see that his eyes were glazed over, as if he was on the verge of tears.

Without another word, the Incubus put his arm around the Freelancer's shoulder, trying somewhat helplessly to comfort his boyfriend.

At the same time, he looked up to Carolina who stood there with an unreadable expression.

"Shit, I… I'm sorry Carolina. I don't know what I…" he trailed off helplessly, looking at Carolina with sympathy in his chocolate brown eyes.

The Phoenix nodded curtly without saying a word, but Tucker knew that she wasn't really up for talking given the situation she was in.

Locus was put down on the ground some feet away from the others, almost everyone standing in a big circle with both of the bodies in the middle of it.

"What are we going to do with Locus?" Grif asked, obviously not happy with the idea of taking him with them.

"We are taking him with us, but I will get him buried outside the Sanctuary in a cemetery in an anonymous grave. I think it's—"

In that very moment, while Kimball was talking, Locus shot up in a sitting position with a loud gasp, taking in air in a huge gulp.

This caused everyone to jump up with a surprised yell, people having guns and other weapons all aimed at an enemy who they had believed up until a second ago to be dead.

"What the actual fuck just happened?" Church ranted, as he was the first to regain his voice.

"It looks like he is a Nephilim." Kimball stated calmly, going a bit closer to examine the mercenary sitting there.

He was still trying to find out what just happened and he was also still trying to get enough air in his lungs. He obviously hadn't even noticed that a pair of huge angel-like wings had appeared on his back.

"What is a Nephilim?" It was Wash's turn to chime in and ask the obvious question running through everyone's mind just then.

"I only heard about them many years ago," Kimball started while still looking at Locus attentively, "It is said that some people might appear for all accounts to be normal but they are indeed still Abnormals. Their Abnormal DNA, however, doesn't get activated until the moment they die. When they get revived, they either show a pair of black bat-like wings and are called 'Bastards' or they show angel-like wings, like Locus."

With that, she pointed to the mercenary who now slowly started to process what had happened and was looking at his wings in awe and shock.

"Those who show angel-like wings are called Nephilim, coming from a common tale. In this tale it is said that a child born out of the love of a human and an angel looks completely normal until the day they die and are revived with special powers. A so-called 'Nephilim.' Which is the reason why people started calling Abnormals like Locus here Nephilim in the first place." Kimball concluded her explanation.

"I see… So Locus had been an Abnormal this whole time but nobody ever suspected him of being one since his Abnormal DNA had been slumbering within his body and was waiting to awaken when he died?" North formulated it a bit in a bit more complicated of a fashion, but it was the exact conclusion to what Kimball had wanted to say.

The leader of the Sanctuary only nodded, "Exactly."

With that, she turned around to Locus to and regarded him carefully, "Now to you. What do you plan on doing with your new life then, Locus?"

The dark haired man looked up at her at that, still a bit lost. It took some moments for him to react with everyone's eyes still on the mercenary, waiting for him to say something.

Finally, he slowly stood up a bit shakily but looked at everyone, "I will be going out into the world to atone for what I did." He said then, "I did a lot of harm to my kind and I want to at least atone a little bit for the cruel things I did. If I hate the Abnormals, I have to hate myself. But I want to learn to live with it and I want to help Normals understand our side."

Kimball nodded at that, a thoughtful expression on her face, "Very well then. I hope you will be able to find what you are looking for when traveling around." She said at length, before straightening her posture and obviously having come to a conclusion, "If you ever need a place to stay or a safe haven, the Sanctuary will always welcome you. You are an Abnormal the same as us and you have the same rights."

Although this caused some Abnormals to gasp for air in surprise, nobody dared to interject. They knew that Kimball was right. They were all the same and Kimball never made any differences between the Abnormals coming to the Sanctuary who were asking for help and shelter.

Locus nodded at that, "I will keep that in mind. Thank you."

With that, he turned around and started walking off, towards an unknown direction.

Simmons hoped that he would find what he was looking for somewhere out there – his peace.

Before he was able to voice his thoughts, however, suddenly Lopez's cousin was cursing loudly. He had tried to start the countdown of the explosives, but it seemed that something was wrong.

Doyle was standing beside him and looked the device over, before looking up to Kimball.

"The explosives are having some kind of issue and the remote release isn't working." He informed everyone.

Doyle and Kimball's expressions, as well as those of the Freelancers turned grim immediately.

"I go and do it by myself. I am fireproof." Carolina said, already starting to walk towards the building though she was held back by North.

"You might be fireproof, but not rubble-proof. Besides, I don't think York would agree to you throwing your life away so mindlessly, him being alive or not." He said to her in a calm but stern tone, which gave her pause.

She lowered her head at that and nodded sadly.

"I will go."

Everyone's eyes shot up and looked at Doyle.

"I never really had been good at anything and I am a coward. There are far more capable leaders of branches than me." He started, suddenly shaking his head with a sad smile when Kimball went to interrupt him.

"It's okay, Kimball. I wouldn't have been able to live any longer anyways. I have lymph gland cancer in its final stage. I didn't want to worry you so I never told you." He nodded towards her when she looked at him shocked, "I would maybe have another month or two, but my life is at its end. So please, let me at least do something for you and end my life with dignity instead of being hooked up on IVs in the infirmary."

Another heavy silence settled on the group, but eventually Kimball smiled.

"I understand. Then do what you think you have to do. I only wish you would have told me earlier," She lifted a hand when Doyle opened his mouth to respond, "Although I understand your reasoning. I won't stop you, but I am sure everyone and especially me will miss you. We never might have been on the same page about everything, but you are one of my dearest friends I have had in my long life."

Doyle smiled and took the remote from the hand of Lopez's cousin, "I am happy to hear that. I will miss everyone too. Please, stay safe. You have about ten minutes to leave. Please do so."

Kimball nodded before giving the order to leave the place on the pickups and cars they had brought there.

York was put on the storage area of one of the pickups, his body covered with a white cloth with Carolina, Wash, and North sitting beside his body as some sort of funeral procession.

When everyone was in their cars and leaving the place for good, Kimball looked in the mirror of the car she was sitting in, seeing Doyle starting to walk towards the building. Lopez's cousin in the back of the car told Sheila something in Spanish and was handing over a little external hard disk.

Sheila translated for the cousin of her lover, "Miguel, Lopez's cousin, just gave me an external hard disk. He managed to get the data as he previously said. It's all in here."

"Thank you, Sheila. And thank you, Miguel."

Said man only tilted his head slightly in gratitude for her words.

When they were about ten minutes away from the facility, they heard a deafening loud bang and the ground shook violently. They all knew what happened then. Doyle had given his life to end the misuse of the Abnormals and to guarantee the others a safe leave and journey home.

Kimball sighed, looking on the storage area of the pickup in front of her where the Freelancers were sitting. She saw how Carolina held York in her arms again. He really looked like he was sleeping. Even the wound on his arm had closed up and wasn't even leaving a scar.

…Wait… What!?

In a hurry, she snatched the radio, not caring that everyone could hear her voice almost snapping.

"Everyone, stop! Immediately!"

The drivers of the other cars more or less made an emergency stop which caused some people to bump their heads and complain loudly about it, but Kimball didn't care. She was out of the car even before Sarge had stopped completely and ran over to the pickup the Freelancers were on.

With a smooth jump she was on the storage area and grabbed York's arm to look at it closely.

Everyone looked extremely confused as to what she was doing until Kimball started explaining with a trembling voice, "Sorry to bother you, but I just noticed that York's wound on his arm has healed up completely."

This made everybody look even more confused before Simmons spoke up, "You mean…?"

Kimball nodded, "Yes."

"Can anyone tell me what exactly is going on?" Carolina growled out just then, growing more and more irritated by every passing second that she was being kept in the dark.

Simmons smiled while looking at her, "Wounds don't close up when you're dead, Carolina." He only said, before his smile widened a bit when he noticed that she realized what he was implying.

Her grip around York became marginally stronger.

"Did you ever hear about the tale of a Phoenix's tears?" Simmons asked then with another warm smile on his face.

Carolina looked at him, puzzled, "A Phoenix's tears?"

Simmons nodded, "Yes." He confirmed, starting to explain, "A Phoenix's tears can cure all poison when the bond between the Phoenix and the poisoned person is extremely strong and deep. Just like yours and York's."

While Simmons was talking, Carolina had pulled up York's body and was hugging him closely now. She embraced him the same way she used to in the Sanctuary.

Then a low voice emitted, "Can't… breathe… Lina… You're squishing me…" rasped the voice, only hearable for the people standing right around the truck and the werewolves.

Shocked, Carolina nearly let go of her boyfriend, keeping him at arm's length and looking at him completely baffled.

"You're alive?" she asked, not really able to process what had just happened. Simmons guessed that almost everyone felt that way who wasn't familiar with the tale of the Phoenix's tears.

"No, I just play at being alive but I'm totally dead in reality." Came the weak reply of the ghost, a dorky smile appearing on his features.

He didn't have time to say more, however, as he was pulled into a strong embrace by Carolina moments later.

Tears again streamed down her cheeks and she was so at a loss for words that she didn't know what to say. Instead, she buried her head in York's shoulder and cried helplessly.

Slowly but steadily, the Ghost lifted his arms and laid them around Carolina as well, trying to comfort her but also hugging her because he was obviously relieved to be alive again.

Then, as if on cue, everyone erupted into cheers and clapping, feeling the same joy as Simmons did for York being back in the land of the living.

York obviously thought that this was worth a little celebration as he pulled away from Carolina a bit and pulled her in for a deep and loving kiss, which caused the others to cheer and holler even louder.

Looking around, Simmons could see only relief and happiness on his friend's faces, mixed with a tinge of sadness for the loss of their friends such as Doyle.

After everyone was able to calm down a bit, Kimball managed to get them to sit back in their cars and soon they were off to the Sanctuary, where the wounded would get treated and everyone would be able to take a break and recover for a while.


	60. Chapter 60

When they got home after finally being able to leave the valley and the facility behind— York, Matthews, Simmons, all the rescued Abnormals from the facility, and several others were sent directly to the infirmary.

Matthews was sent there because he looked like he had overburdened himself when he had influenced the enemy soldier. However, he would just have to do some check-ups and Bitters would take care of him in their room. Simmons was positive that being around his boyfriend would help Matthews more than any day spent in the infirmary would.

York was sent there because he obviously had to be under surveillance after he had been miraculously revived through Carolina's tears. As much as Kimball, Simmons, and even Carolina believed in this story (or more accurately, _wanted_ to believe in it), they had to make sure. So York was hooked up onto the EKG and several other surveillance instruments. Needless to say, Carolina didn't leave his side unless it was absolutely necessary to do so.

The Abnormals being held captive in the facility were sent there because they had to survey them to make sure they wouldn't freak out or and to ensure that they did not have any contagious diseases before they would be added to the system as guests and get their own rooms or be able to leave in case they wanted to.

Simmons was separated from the others since they didn't know what this strange liquid was that they had injected into his body during his captivity. For all they knew, it could make him go on a rampage when he was back in the Sanctuary and saw something particular there.

Grif was almost going nuts since he again had to leave his mate and could only see him through a window, but they had to go through that. It was only for a few days.

Simmons felt as desperately as Grif on the matter of being separated for even longer, but he also could understand Kimball's point of view, which is why he accepted this order and didn't go against it.

This, however, didn't stop Grif from sitting at the window whenever he was home. He would talk with Simmons for hours. That dumb idiot even fell asleep on the chair several times and Simmons had to ask Kimball to cover him with a blanket whenever he did so.

The Hawaiian went back to work to keep himself distracted during the day, if only to not go nuts while waiting for the redhead to be released.

When Grif was at work, Grey and Kimball often would come over and show Simmons different pictures of the Sanctuary.

They were trying to check to see if Simmons showed a reaction to one of the pictures they showed him, to see if they could possibly trigger something within him. Just to eliminate the possibility that he could go crazy by seeing Kimball's office, or the library, or the high security area, or literally any other place at the Sanctuary. This would give them an indication of whether or not he had been in the process of being programmed or brainwashed while being held at the facility.

But aside from the normal reactions and memories that came up when he saw particular places in the Sanctuary, nothing happened that was out of the ordinary.

After five days, Simmons was finally released.

They didn't tell Grif as Simmons first needed some time to organize his shit in their room and write down some notes as to what he witnessed that he considered to be very important. He already wrote down a lot of information on a secluded datapad that had no access to the internet or the local servers, but gave him the possibility to write down what was on his mind.

The things he had witnessed firsthand were irreplaceable and extremely important for their debriefing, which was to be held once every member of the assault team was out of the infirmary and feeling well again.

He wrote the last sentence of his notes down and decided to give it a rest for today. Quickly saving the data and shutting down the laptop, he left their shared room for a shower.

It had been a huge shock for Simmons to find their room oddly clean since it had only been Grif in there for the last couple of weeks. Although Simmons struggled to comprehend it, Grif had apparently been cleaning up and keeping their room neat and tidy for his return.

The redhead had been so moved that he could have cried, but he decided to keep his tears back and just smile at that odd display of Grif's love for him.

Simmons got out of the shower, freshly cleaned and dressed. Returning to his room, he threw the clothes he previously wore into the basket and decided to read a book.

He didn't really have much time to even decide which book he should pick up as he heard the door to their room open.

Before he was even able to turn around, he was grabbed forcefully from behind and, in the next moment, Grif had him up against the wall and was kissing him forcefully.

The growl that emitted from the wolven's throat made Simmons' knees go weak and caused him to reply with a whine to Grif's growling.

It felt like they were renewing their promise from when they had gotten together as a couple. This whining and growling, promising each other to never stay apart like that again. They would stick together, no matter what happened.

Since he had been in Hargrove's facility, he had started to become one with Kiran. There wasn't a _him_ and _me_ anymore. They were _us_ and they were one.

Which was also why Simmons sometime back in the facility started to call himself Kiran Simmons instead of Richard.

He had hated that name anyways since it was the one his dad had too.

It was some kind of rebirth for him when leaving this name behind and taking up his wolven name also as a human. It was a mix of them both, as they were in Simmons' body. They were one and so was their name.

Grif and Kai noticed it pretty fast after their exit out of Hargrove's facility that he had changed.

Rasheed had been skyping with him through the window, with Kimball's help. Although Rasheed was a turned one, he knew exceptionally much about the wolvens.

It had also been him who explained a myth coming from the ancient times of the wolvens. It was said that a wolven becoming truly one with his human side would also hold the key to knowledge.

As purebloods usually were better attuned to their human sides, it was a given assumption that everyone thought that a pureblood would once again be able to unlock the ancient knowledge written down in their wolven DNA.

Many purebloods were resenting him because a turned one unlocked the ancient knowledge instead. Simmons guessed that they felt their pride was hurt since a turned one was able to access the knowledge instead of a born pureblood.

Years ago, Simmons would have felt stressed out because of the open display of resentment. But today? He couldn't care less that they were behaving like assholes because their pride was hurt.

Grif was supporting him in his work, now even more than before, and he always said that Simmons was the best to access the ancient knowledge because he was smart, crafty, and could understand the meaning of the stories and put them into the right context to help renew their wolven culture.

In any case, there were many calls from wolvens and Sanctuaries all around the world who wanted to get a glimpse of Simmons' knowledge – even more than they had before he had been abducted – or who needed help with a strangely behaving wolven in their midst.

Well, Simmons was some kind of wolven superstar right now, huh? He only hoped that was going to die down a bit since he wasn't really the one for always standing in the spotlight.

Grif bit down on his right shoulder with an annoyed growl, clearly ordering Simmons to shut off that ever-working brain of his.

For once, the redhead complied happily.

As soon as they were home, Tucker, Wash and the kids were brought to the infirmary for an overall check of their health and body, just to make sure they didn't have any injuries or mental problems.

Grey had shortly examined Tucker and the kids who all seemed perfectly fine. However, when it came to Wash, Dr. Grey seemed to take her time.

Tucker decided to go back to his room with Aki and Junior to wait there for his boyfriend.

The kids were in Junior's room and were playing together while Tucker waited for the blond to return. After about half an hour of waiting, the door slowly opened and Wash entered, looking troubled.

They didn't have much time to talk when they were on their way back home, so they consequently didn't have much time to catch up on what had happened to their respective partner and what these things had triggered in them.

It was even more important that they should talk about it now. Wash obviously needed his support.

With a light groan, he got up and walked over to the werecat, who was standing in the room and looking confused as if he walked the way over there on autopilot and didn't know where he was exactly.

Gently resting a hand on his love's shoulder, he guided him over to the bed and made him sit down on it before the Incubus took a place beside the man himself.

Tucker didn't say a word while they were sitting there. He only waited for Wash to start talking. Pressing the ex-Freelancer would only end with him retreating into his own mind. The Incubus only had to give him some time.

Junior peeked into the room with Aki in her cat-form, but Tucker only sent a glance his way with a shake of his head, indicating ' _Not now!_ '

His son seemed to get the hint and retreated back into his room together with Aki to give them time.

Eventually, after minutes of sitting there and waiting, Wash reluctantly started telling Tucker about Maine.

That they were best friends together with Connie during the project and due to their similarities as a werecat and a Felk, they were somehow specially connected. They were friends and fighting mates, and they went through so much together—including the breakdown of the project.

Wash first thought that Maine was a goner since he had never heard from him ever since the project's building collapsed.

Now he knew that he hadn't heard of him because he had been held captive by Hargrove.

Finally, he came to what happened in the complex and that Maine had died.

When Wash had finished his explanation, both he and Tucker sat on the bed silently for quite a while until the Incubus first spoke up again.

"That's horrible. I… shit, I can't even say how sorry I am, Wash." He muttered, reaching over and covering one of the werecat's hands with one of his.

"It's okay…" the werecat trailed off, but Tucker cut him off.

"No, it isn't."

A smile crept over the blond male's face before he continued, "Maybe not now, but it will be."

Tucker huffed, but didn't respond to that. Wash was right. He isn't okay at the moment, but he will be in the future.

After another rather awkward silence between the two of them, Tucker then straightened himself.

"How about we go to bed for tonight and talk about it tomorrow when the kids are back to school? Sound good?"

A smile crept over Wash's face, "Sounds pretty good. But, uh…"

Tucker could see how Wash's human ears turned red. The Incubus waited for him to continue.

"…Is it possible that the kids could stay with us tonight? I want to have everyone around."

Tucker regard his profile, asking sternly, "I guess that's some instinct thing from your cat side?"

Wash only nodded and Tucker smiled at the display of sincerity and trust in the werecat who usually was so closed off, even against him.

"Sure, let us get the kids and ask them if they're okay." Tucker then replied with a grin spreading over his face at the prospect of all of them being together.

Sure, it would be crammed in the bed, but for once he didn't mind. He also felt like wanting to have everyone together for this night to just make sure that they were all okay and alive. Rather understandable, given what went down only hours ago.

Both of the males got up and went over to the kids to break their plan to them. Of course, they were onboard pretty fast and soon they were all cuddled up together in Tucker's bed and sleeping off the stress and exhaustion of the last few hours together.

Today, everyone was in their human forms, even Aki. She had wonderful black hair and ice blue eyes. Her skin was pale like porcelain. She looked like a living doll and was gorgeous. Tucker was sure that she would become a beautiful woman one day.

But for now, they were all curled up against each other and sleeping soundly, forgetting the trouble of the last few hours.

Bitters just entered Matthews' room with a little tray with food and two bottles of water. He could see the still figure of his sleeping boyfriend.

The whole illusion trick he did on the soldier had exhausted him emotionally and mentally. He was exhausted from doing it, but also from the knowledge of what he did.

Sure, everyone knew including Matthews himself that what he did was necessary in order to keep them alive. But that didn't mean that he didn't feel guilty over it still.

It took Bitters hours until he managed to get Matthews to accept the fact that he had made someone kill others.

Setting down the tray, Bitters sat down on the bed beside his sleeping boyfriend, taking his sweet time to observe the peaceful face of the young man.

He still couldn't believe his incredible luck for finding and getting together with the empath who was so patient with the Dryad and would be there for him whenever he needed him. On the other hand, Bitters was there for Matthews and they both knew when to give each other space.

Leaning over the sleeping young man, he gently shook Matthews by the shoulder, "Hey, Matthews. Get up. You have to eat something."

There was a grumbling and a groaning when he was first waking up. Blearily, he opened his eyes and looked around a bit confused before his brain booted up enough to read the situation at hand.

Given the fact that this was the first time in days he was sleeping properly, Bitters almost felt bad for waking him up. But he had to eat something. Bitters wouldn't let his love starve to death.

Slowly sitting up on the bed, Bitters gave him time to wake up properly and sit on the bed with his back leaning against the head wall.

Now sitting down beside the young male, Bitters took the tray and put it down on the blond-haired young man's lap.

Matthews blinked some more times, trying to process what just happened, when Bitters already started to move a forkful of pasta to his mouth.

"Come on, you need to eat something." The Dryad again tried to coax the empath into eating.

Reluctantly, the young man opened his mouth and let the dryad feed him.

"I can do that alone, you know." He muttered a bit sullenly around a forkful of pasta.

"Yeah, but then you won't eat enough to even keep your weight. And you are lanky, no need to get bony. I prefer not feeling every bone when I'm with you." A smug grin appeared on his features when he saw Matthews' cheeks dusting with a pink tinge.

Gulping down the bit of pasta he had been fed by Bitters, he waited for another forkful of vegetables this time. Bitters didn't need to be told twice as he now started to feed the blond his dinner.

"Seriously, try to at least eat enough to not get any skinnier than you already are. I like you the way you are." Bitters muttered, observing how Matthews had already started to show clear signs of feeling full while chewing on his third forkful of food.

It took some moments until the empath replied, "I just don't feel like eating…"

Bitters sighed heavily.

"I know and I can understand," Bitters replied quietly, scooping another forkful of pasta and vegetables up and feeding it to Matthews before continuing, "But try it nonetheless. You don't help yourself and me if I have to bring you to the infirmary to drip feed you. Please… just try, okay?" He muttered with an expression between sad and pleading.

Matthews chewed on the food slowly, Bitters seeing him thinking over the discussion they obviously just had. After swallowing down, he took another moment before answering.

Bitters put the food away as he didn't want Matthews to puke from eating too much, instead opening and giving his boyfriend a can of soda.

"I can try…" he muttered then lowly, "But I just don't feel like eating when I killed someone," Matthews shook his head slightly when he saw Bitters opening his mouth, "I just feel like not having the right to eat and be happy when I have killed someone."

Right, this subject again… Bitters sighed heavily.

"Sure, you don't feel like eating when you have killed someone. Literally. But you also have the right to think of the people you saved with that act. Simmons, Grif, Wash, Tucker, all the others. And what's most important, you saved not only them but me and Hera too," Bitters took Matthews' face in his hands and made him look at the Dryad, "If they would have spotted us before you were able to put up the illusion… I don't want to fathom what could have happened and who would have died if you hadn't done that for us."

There was a long silence where neither of them said a word.

Bitters observed the blonde attentively, trying to catch up on every reaction of the empath.

Matthews, on the other hand, was deep in thought, thinking about what he had just heard.

He didn't only have to beat up himself about the people he killed with his actions. He also had the right to think of the people he saved with his actions.

He never thought of it that way. He had the right to think of the people he saved. Matthews saved not only Bitters and Hera, but all the others too by killing those people. So did that make the situation an ends justify the means one?

He didn't guess that Bitters meant that. He guessed that Bitters wanted to cheer him up and that he meant it well with him having the right to think of the people he saved too.

He still couldn't make a proper meaning out of the things that Bitters had said, but he decided to take it as it was and try to think more about the people he saved and saw every day at the Sanctuary than beating himself up over ghosts of the past he couldn't save anymore. And he couldn't change the past anyway, so he was better off to think about the future.

Thinking of building up a happy future, together with Bitters and Hera.

This thought got Matthews to smile quite a bit, even more when it came to imagining how they would live together on the countryside or wherever, picturing some more or less plausible scenarios where he would be happy with his family.

Bitters felt a smile creep over his face as he saw how the blond's features started to light up and a smile spread across his lips.

"There, that's much better." Bitters muttered with a growing smile, gently letting the thumb of his right hand ghost over Matthews' cheekbone.

"Thank you, Bitters." the blond muttered with a growing smile.

This time it was Bitters who blinked, surprised, "Thanks for what?"

Matthews couldn't help but chuckle at the dumbfounded expression on the Dryad's face, "Because you always know how to cheer and build me back up again."

"Heh," Muttered the older male with a shy smile, "I guess I just know you pretty well, huh?"

"Pretty much." Replied the empath, a fond smile now spreading across his features.

Before Bitters could even reply to Matthews' statement, he felt how the empath leaned in and pressed his lips against the Dryad's.

It took Bitters some moments to understand the sudden change in behavior of his boyfriend. Minutes ago he had been depressed, and now he was leaning against him, kissing him, and cuddling into him.

Bitters guessed it was because of the pep talk he had given the blond that he was feeling better now, but the sudden change in behavior was a big surprise nonetheless – though the Dryad would be lying if he said he didn't like it.

He could feel how Matthews' hands soon released the grip on the tan shirt with orange accents Bitters was wearing and how they started roaming over his upper body.

The young Dryad couldn't help but sigh at the touch of his boyfriend. He couldn't help that Bitters was responsive to his boyfriend's touches and kisses.

Pressing back against Matthews, Bitters also let his hands wander down the blond's upper body, soon slipping his hands under the young empath's shirt and pulling it out in one go.

Making the blond lay down on the bed, Bitters leant over the lanky body of the blond and started kissing his way down his boyfriend's chest.

Matthews suddenly began intently tugging at Bitters' shirt, causing the Dryad to sit up a bit and start pulling out his shirt too. When he turned back around to lean back over the blond, he suddenly felt how he got pushed against his shoulders, making him lose his balance.

Toppling back over, he fell on his back and soon felt Matthews' lips being pressed against his in the next moment in a demanding manner.

He could feel how his boyfriend's hands roamed over his chest, how they explored every inch of his body, tracing his muscles and playing with his soft spot right between his collar bone, where a small dent would form when someone was lying.

Dipping his tongue into the little dent there, he could feel his boyfriend shudder and groan underneath him, which made him shudder too.

While teasing the spot right between the two collar bones, Matthews climbed on top of the Dryad, straddling him and making sure that his boyfriend couldn't move too much underneath him.

One of his hands wandered down, teasing the Dryad relentlessly, which made the older male underneath him shudder and writhe, moan, and groan.

Feeling Bitters' hands wander down his sides and down to his butt, he couldn't help but moan into the kiss he initiated only moments ago as Bitters squeezed his buttocks.

His hips moved slightly forward and he felt Bitters' hands squeeze his buttocks tighter, lifting his hips to rut against Matthews.

After he felt Bitters' grip weakening a bit, he lifted his hips and started to let one hand travel down the Dryad's upper body and abdomen until he reached the waistband.

It was strange. During the first times when they slept with each other, Matthews always was so reluctant and shy that Bitters had to lead him through everything and encourage him with every step he would take.

Now he was doing things so naturally it was almost frightening how much he had changed since then.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he focused back on the situation at hand and let his slightly chilly hand slip into Bitter's pants.

This action was rewarded by an even louder moan than the previous one and a vicious squeeze of Matthews hips.

He could feel a moan build up in his throat as well when he observed every reaction of his boyfriend to the actions he took.


	61. Chapter 61

Months passed and York got progressively better, not showing any signs of feeling unwell or lapsing back into the state his body was in before the revival – to being dead.

But, obviously, as Kimball put it simply, it was like someone had a heart attack and was reanimated after being dead for some time.

It sounded quite alike, although everyone having a larger knowledge about the whole issue and situation knew that this wasn't as easy as Kimball liked to phrase it. But for the other inhabitants of the Sanctuary, it was a fitting explanation and they were happy to have the dork back.

Not that Carolina wasn't happy to have this idiot back as well, mind you. She was thoroughly happy and would have loved to spend her days only being around him.

But in the end, they had to schedule their tasks, meaning Carolina's work as well as York's examinations, so that they would have some time together.

York would drop out of the missions for now and would only reenter them once Kimball cleared him.

However, after some months had passed, things got progressively better and Kimball was okay with lengthening the times when he had to go to her for check-ups.

It more and more looked like it really was a situation very similar to someone who had been reanimated.

He didn't have any lingering damages after everything that had gone down. He even seemed to do better than before with everything, which was strange

But neither Carolina or York would question it. The only ones who questioned it and would take some blood samples were Kimball and Doctor Grey, making some analyses on York's blood and coming to the conclusion that Carolina's tears had a healing effect on his system. Not only the parts of him that had been affected by Felix's poison, but it also looked as though it had cured every effect of poison of any kind in York's system in the process: such as the effects of the bad air outside on his lungs, or the pesticides in his body from the food he had eaten before he entered the Sanctuary since Kimball was strictly only buying organic food without any pesticides or herbicides on it since some guests might not react well on to them.

After having been cured of all of the damages from those toxins, he looked and felt better than before.

When Kimball announced that York didn't have to come by for check-ups aside from a normal annual check-up, five more years had already come and gone, and the Sanctuary and the community of Abnormals had progressively calmed down.

Now being together for around five years, York and Carolina decided to leave the Sanctuary to set up a new life somewhere in a neighboring state, so that they still would be close to the Sanctuary as both of them complied with Kimball's request to stay close for the annual check-up and to help out every now and then when she would still need help.

In order to help the community of werecats which threatened to disappear, York and Carolina decided to make their home into a cat shelter, like a cat lady would do. They bought a huge house on the outskirts of a middle sized town and adopted some cats. They all had different shapes and colors, naming them after the Greek alphabet.

A chartreux with such pale blue eyes that they're almost white was called Alpha.

A black one with gleaming ember eyes became named Beta, sometimes also called Tex because she originally was from Texas.

A gray one with a mew that sounded more electronic than natural got named Gamma, or Gary as York preferred it.

There also was a red tiger-striped little toddler who became Theta. His brother, a bigger and a bit meaner red tiger was named Sigma.

A white, long-haired cat with green eyes became Delta.

There were also Eta and Iota, two of four tri-colored siblings of a litter that had been abandoned.

Out of the same litter was Epsilon, a hostile one who obviously had problems coping with them being abandoned to die. Their brother, Omega, had even more problems and was even more angry than Epsilon, which often led to Carolina putting him on his spot and having an argument with the cat.

Although they didn't understand each other, York was one hundred percent positive that they were arguing together, because Omega, or O'Malley as they used to call him, often tended to disappear after such an argument for some days before returning and behaving somewhat normal until shit started again.

They called him O'Malley like that because the antagonist of a movie they once saw was called O'Malley and he was as angry and had the same bad temper as Omega.

Sure, they both knew that two cats were named the same as the Church siblings in the Sanctuary, the vampires, but they didn't care. They both just had an affinity for the Greek alphabet, so who cared anyways?

Back to the topic at hand then. Omega then soon started wandering around on his own, not showing up for days and only showing up when not having been able to fetch something on his own. Otherwise, he would be around the house, but never too close so his siblings could spot him.

About a year after they set up their cat house and Wash helped with spreading the news through the community, the first werecat appeared. It was a heavily pregnant female werecat, obviously having been kicked out of her group for some reason and needing a place for her and the kittens to stay.

Wash showed up with Tucker, Junior, and Aki, staying by the female's side as a cat during the birth and informing Aki, who was in her human form, about the needs of the female.

They helped her through the most difficult time and even after that, the werecat often would show up to visit them.

It was some months after the birth of the kittens, when Carolina and York visited the Sanctuary to announce their marriage in about half a year, when they learned that others of their group had also made up their plans as to what they were going to do next.

Wash, Tucker, Junior, and Aki would move on to the other side of Atlanta and set up another cat house themselves, making sure that every werecat could come to them for shelter when they didn't want to go to the Sanctuary.

Besides that, they would help Kimball with missions and recommend the Sanctuary to Abnormals needing more help and shelter than the little makeshift family there could offer.

Sarge would stay at the Sanctuary as Kimball's designated driver and be a replacement dad of sorts for her, helping her whenever she needed help.

Bitters, Matthews, and Hera would do the same, as Bitters and Matthews thought it was best to stay there. Matthews had a well-paying job as one of the best psychologists in the area while Bitters could play with Hera besides tending to the trees and the garden.

Sheila and Lopez got together soon after returning and had decided to go back to Mexico, where both their families originally came from.

Grif and Simmons didn't really have any plans as Simmons was pretty time-consumed with being a wolven-superstar and doing his work there at the Sanctuary, but Carolina was sure that would come too sometime in the near future.

Caboose would stay at the Sanctuary too, Carolina having to promise him to come over regularly to play with him as she was the only fireproof person he knew.

Since Donut had such a strong telepathic bond to North and was supposedly the last of his kind, he decided to travel the world so see if there really weren't any other mermaids and mermen to found a new colony with in order to revive the race of the mermaids and mermen again. It was a sure thing that he would stay in touch with North about his travels and achievements.

Epsilon and Alpha decided to stay in the Sanctuary. They felt okay with staying there when they were given their space. Besides that, they didn't really have any other choice to go to as they would be thrown back into the ongoing conflict between the Grifs and Churches when stepping a foot outside the safety barrier of the Sanctuary. Besides the Grifs, there also were vampire hunters lurking to kill them. Van Helsing was the most known family for hunting down vampires.

Jensen improved quite a bit, deciding to put up something like a little hand reading shop as a disguise to give a little bit of luck to the people who weren't that lucky in their lives.

After Simmons and Kimball had checked over his plans and gave their okay to them, Palomo moved to the Greek Sanctuary in order to find other fauns. He had heard about families of fauns living in the mountains of northern Greece and he wanted to go there to maybe find a new home amongst his kind. He however promised to regularly send a card or to phone. Kimball organized it with the Sanctuary there that they would help him organize the transfer without giving away the location of the fauns.

Later on they would hear that he had gotten accepted by the other fauns there and even found himself a girl he was happy with.

Andersmith stayed at the Sanctuary as Sarge did, helping Kimball and the parents with the kids. Besides that, he helped the kids with their homework and now became, after Carolina moved out, the official contact person for the journalists when it came to the Sanctuary network or any things possibly involving the network.

In the public eye of the Normals, the Sanctuary network was a shelter for homeless and abandoned people, giving the people help they needed when getting into a worrisome situation that they couldn't get out of themselves. The Sanctuary would give shelter and food, only wanting the people living there to either pay for the rent when they were able to find a job with the Sanctuary's help or by intending on staying and helping around the Sanctuary to 'pay' for their stay by working.

The months and years passed by, Hera gradually growing up and soon after she was pretty independent. Bitters and Matthews decided to go for the real thing and announced to Kimball their desire to help her with the difficult cases in the Sanctuary, meaning the abandoned, lonely, and orphaned Abnormal kids and babies coming to the Sanctuary.

Soon after, they were looking after all kinds of Abnormals, from a little human-snake boy, over to a girl that was a centaur and an Ichtyosapiens-boy. Those were humans with gills behind their ears who were able to breath on land and under water.

The latest addition to their makeshift family that made Bitters and Matthews extremely happy was a young baby girl.

Kimball had found her mother in the streets. She was barely alive and quite pregnant. Considering the blood loss, the birth must have been hard and already ongoing for a while.

The girl explained to them while being brought to the Sanctuary that she was one of the sacred Kitsunes, a fox that was considered the messengers of the Japanese goddess Inari. They were pure white and in order to survive in the world that was constantly changing, some of them started to be able to disguise themselves as humans.

But when they couldn't keep up their disguise up for any reason, they would turn back to their original state. A pure white fox.

Which was what happened after the birth and the girl died of the blood loss and exhaustion. Kimball later would explain to Matthews and Bitters that she was a lost cause by the time that Kimball had found her, unfortunately. The girl also didn't ask for herself to be rescued but for her child to be saved when she noticed that Kimball would help her and knew about the Abnormals in the world.

During the first few days, it was pretty difficult since they both had decided to take the baby to their room to keep an eye on her. They named her Shiroko.

It wasn't a Japanese name per se, but an alternation of one. Shiro meant pure, innocent, but also white. And the Ko stood for 'being the kid of.' Which in the end lead to something like her name meaning 'Being the kid of the white' or 'Being the kid of innocence.'

The white was a remembrance of her mother, who was a pureblood Kitsune. She got cast out of her clan because she fell in love with a normal human, with her lineage of pureblood Kitsunes ending there.

The human, however, ditched her once he found out that she was pregnant, leaving her alone.

Due to the kid not being a pureblood Kitsune, she couldn't return back to Japan and couldn't turn to a fox, which was why she was caught in her human form and having to fight for the next seven months to get her and the child through. She managed, barely, but in the end this had taken a toll on her life, leaving her daughter in the hands of the Dryad and the empath.

Shiroko was no pureblood Kitsune, but being a blend of a normal human and a Kitsune made special features show up on her directly from birth. She had a set of white fox ears, as well as a white fox tail and amber fox eyes. Her hearing was extremely accurate, as was her nose.

She was half Kitsune and half human after all, and the dominant genetics of the Kistune helped improve her human body.

Her black hair made the white, furry ears stand out even more and both Bitters and Matthews were sure she would become a beautiful woman one day.

But at the moment, they had to get up regularly to feed, diaper or sooth her so she could go back to sleep.

Both of the parents were tired and overworked, but they wouldn't want to miss what they had now with the kids.

Hera soon was grown up and living in the Sanctuary, not needing their help anymore. Against initial plans, Kimball decided to keep Hera in a huge cage where she could fly instead of releasing her, since she was too used to humans now. She wasn't suspicious of them anymore, which could make her an easy target.

Last but not least, Simmons and Grif decided to move out. However, they had something bigger in mind.

Since Kimball had cleared Simmons after some long-term tests, he wanted to put his plan into action.

The stuff the doctors had injected into his system was a mix of stress hormones, adrenaline, and the pheromones of a foreign dominant Alpha. They had wanted to stress Kiran so much that he would show himself.

Kimball supposed that they would have injected some kind of 'stabilization' serum into him after Kiran showed up in order to keep Simmons suppressed so that they could extract that part out of Kiran's brain and make him a full-fledged wolf without any remnants of Simmons inside him still.

He remembered how he had shuddered then and just silently thanked Kiran that they had worked so well together back then and hadn't allowed his wolven form to appear.

Anyways, back to the idea that he had. The idea had never really quite left Simmons since he first had been to Hawaii together with Grif for holidays.

Which led to him walking into Kimball's office one day when Grif was working and asking her if the idea was a doable one.

Kimball listened intently to the idea at first, starting to smile brighter with every minute passing.

When Simmons was finished, she pulled out a sheet of paper and Simmons read on as something very similar to a contract was written down.

As he would learn only moments later, Kimball had already suspected that Simmons would most likely bring this subject up at some point, so she had already prepared a contract.

Years ago, about a hundred or something, she had gotten a small tiny little island somewhere beside the larger ones. It only had been a tiny blip on the map, not bigger than a kilometer in diameter and had obviously been like that for ages.

The village elders gave her that island as thanks for her help in keeping a tsunami off their islands with her magic. In reality it had been a bigger Abnormal stopping the wave with a counter-wave, but she wasn't really keen on filling in all the details due to the status of Abnormals in Normal society at the time and had accepted the island as thanks.

Now came the more interesting parts to the story. Over the years and with the help of an Abnormal being able to cause volcanos to appear on the surface (only one at a time and even that for only a short period of time), she managed to enlarge the island to a moderate piece of land on the ocean. It was wide enough for her to build a main building on the north of the island and lots of bungalows scattered all over the island. There was a forest and beaches, along with other land features as well.

With the car you could get around the island in two hours tops when there was a street built around the island. But even with that, you needed around the same time to walk from the north to the south and from the west to the east because of the island's thick flora.

In any case, Kimball now gave this island over to Simmons with the only condition being that he had to set up a Sanctuary there.

As Simmons was okay with that, she agreed to giving him this place.

Simmons didn't only want to set up another Sanctuary as there were enough of them close by, so he proposed to Kimball to make a wolven-only Sanctuary on this island, as Hawaii was the land of the wolvens' ancestors and a place where they could all live in peace.

It took Kimball some moments to think over it, but in the end she agreed, thinking that this would be the best idea so there wouldn't be a conflict of other Sanctuaries being in the proximity, such as the headquarter in Atlanta and the Mexican, Peruvian, and Brazilian Sanctuaries.

Sure, Simmons would allow others to stay in the Sanctuary, but only for as long as they needed to recover or as long as it took for the representative of one of the other Sanctuaries to show up to accompany them to their new home. The Abnormals would be free to choose the Sanctuary they wanted to live in when it wasn't possible for them to stay at the Hawaiian one, since they weren't wolvens.

In the end, Kimball wrote a short note underneath the contract about the wolven-only Sanctuary and both of them signed it.

As the leader of the Sanctuary, the whole overwriting should be done within a week. During that time, she would help him organize everything for the travel down there and also help him with setting up the Sanctuary.

When Grif learned about Simmons' plan and that they would go back to Hawaii to found a new Sanctuary only for wolvens, he was overly happy, lifting the redhead up in his arms and whirling around with a happy laugh until they both collapsed on the bed, thoroughly dizzy.

When Simmons asked Grif if he really was okay with being the Alpha of a huge pack of different characters and wolvens, he replied that it was a shitload of work, but that he would put up with it since it meant going back to Hawaii and helping wolvens like him find a home where they could feel safe. He didn't want other wolvens to share the same fate as he and Kai had experienced.

Two months after that, they boarded the plane to Hawaii together with Kai who had finished high school and was working at a local bar until they decided to move.

Kai already told Simmons and Grif about setting up a tourist guide service in Hawaii to show them around, although both males highly doubted that this would work out – though they soon learned that it worked out pretty well and that Kai was doing great as a guide.

The day when they opened the gates of the new Sanctuary for wolvens, the Alpha male of the Mexican Sanctuary came over, already having requested the transfer and being granted access to the new Sanctuary.

One of the head rules of this Sanctuary was that the past didn't count and that all would live peacefully together as a pack. Sure, there would be one or another problems and fights occurring, but you wouldn't shush a wolven because he had been an outcast outside the walls of the Wolven-Sanctuary.

The other head rule was that every wolven entering the Sanctuary would have to accept Simmons and Grif as the leading Alpha mates and that they would say how things would go there. Whenever one tried to start a fuss, Grif and Simmons would put him back in his or her place.

Simmons, Grif, and Kai did a great job in Hawaii too by spreading news of the island where wolvens could live without fear of being chased or killed because of something. When they entered the gates, they would be cleaned of their past.

Of course, Simmons would do a thorough background check and not let in just any wolven when they could be a possible danger. He didn't want sleepers in his pack who could kill half of the people here because they had been sent to destroy his Sanctuary.

In any case, while spreading news, Grif tracked down Cole together with Simmons. He had gotten cocky again, but after a short fight and Simmons making it clear that he had access to the ancient wisdom of the wolvens, Cole accepted Grif being the Alpha and also accepted that he wasn't allowed to touch the Sanctuary with the wolvens on this island.

Grif made it pretty clear that he would tear the other Alpha wolven to shreds should he do so much as even think on trying to annihilate the Wolven-Sanctuary on the island Lycanius, which was what they called the little island now.

In return for the wolvens helping or paying from the salary they got from work on other islands, Simmons started to teach them the wisdom of the information sealed in their DNA which lead to the pack slowly but gradually returning back to the old structures before the clan almost got annihilated and the whole mating-with-real-wolves had started.

The wolvens living and joining the Sanctuary were all peacefully enjoying having a place where they could be amongst themselves and live a life without fear.

Sure, other packs started to form out of the huge pack under Simmons' and Grif's leadership, but as long as they were behaving peacefully and not acting up or harassing other wolvens, they would let the guys form their packs. There were also mates finding each other and young wolvens being born into the community there.

Some of the wolvens left the Sanctuary after a while and set up shop on one of the islands, making it possible for other wolvens to find a job and spreading the news of the Wolven-Sanctuary along with the wisdom and culture passed down through their DNA to other wolvens.

After only two years, Simmons and Grif already noticed the community of the wolvens starting to change and morphing into a new one, where tolerance and respect again played a big role.

Cole was going against that so far, and he had to pay a bitter price for it. One of the younger Alphas injured him lethally during a fight for the leadership of their clan, throwing the wolven community on the mainland into a small war.

During that unstable time, more wolvens came to the Wolven-Sanctuary, hoping to find shelter there.

One was a young woman showing up in the middle of the night, carrying a little furry ball in her arms.

It was her pup, a little pureblood of the Starwalker Clan. It had been the pup of her and a younger Starwalker Alpha during Cole's reign. He had tolerated it, but when he died, she got scared and decided to bring her to the Sanctuary. The Alpha male died during a fight and she wasn't able to defend the pup herself.

She was only about two days old and still a whining little bundle that Kai immediately adopted and took under her wing. While Kai in her wolven form let the small pup drink from her, Simmons and Grif stood beside the two and asked the young mother for the umpteenth time if she didn't want to stay with her pup.

Although she was crying, she denied it. She was the last Starwalker besides her, and she needed to go back to the main island. The new leader of the pack expected her to help him gain the upper hand and the lead over the wolvens of the mainland in the fights. If she didn't return, he would get suspicious and he was such a mean fucker that he would raid the Sanctuary to find her.

In order to keep the Sanctuary and her baby safe, she would leave her here, hopefully being able to return and live here together with her at a future time.

Simmons and Grif had to accept her decision as she soon after left with the boat, which led to both of them accepting the little bundle as their own whereas Kai would be the aunt and feed her as long as she wasn't able to eat on her own.

When the conflicts got too out of hand on the mainland, Simmons and Grif decided to take it in their hands and went over to finish the ongoing problems.

It took them some fights and some bigger injuries and scars, but in the end they managed to stabilize the situation on the mainland and make it a bit more agreeable to live within the wolven community. They let the Alphas take over the lead of their packs and also have their fights, but all of the wolvens on the mainland knew that Grif and Simmons wouldn't tolerate a way too excessive fight. They would return and put everyone in his or her place whenever they started behaving idiotically again.

During their time on the mainland, they learned that the young girl of the Starwalker Clan had died during a fight not long after she had left her pup in Grif's and Simmons' custody.

It was saddening and infuriating at first, but as they had already adopted the sweetheart, who had been called Astari by her mother, and she was already used to them pretty well, they decided to keep that up and raise her as their own child.

They would tell her the truth whenever she asked and would raise her to know her mom as they even asked to take a photo and a short clip of the girl who was her mother for Astari to remember her by.

So right now she would grow up with the other pups around her and accept Grif and Simmons as her dads.

They would be proud as fuck as soon as she would change consciously for the first time and go to the mainland with her to shop for clothes and go eat like kings when they were done. They would allow her to eat ice cream all day long and go to a fun fair. And she was allowed to stay up as long as she wanted on that day, until she fell asleep while standing there and waiting for the boat to show up.

They were rather strict usually when it came to her education, sleeping times, and things like that, but since that was a special day, her second birthday, they would let these rules fall aside for once.

She turned out to be a beautiful little girl. She had the same dark skin and hair as Grif and looked like his kid in general. The only difference were the green eyes she had and a smile that resembled Simmons in some ways.

It was strange. They weren't related at all, but Astari seemed like their kid since she had features of both of her dads. Kai often used to joke that she really looked like their real kid, despite not being related to them by blood.

Thanks to Grif and Simmons always being open and honest when it came to her origin, there never was a time where Astari held a big grudge against them. She was happy to have such loving dads, but also knowing that her aunt was there whenever she needed female advice. And that there were pictures and even a short movie clip of her mom where she could hear her voice and see her face.

Looking at the picture, Astari was the perfect clone of her mother. The same dark Hawaiian skin and hair, the same green eyes and the same smile.

As she grew up, she always used to say that she had one mom and three dads. She never got to know her real mom and her real dad, but she had loving foster fathers and a great aunt who raised her with the same love as though she was their own so she never would have any issues about being adopted.

When she grew up and finished college, she went to school and studied human medicine. After mastering this particular field of study, she signed up for another one— veterinary medicine.

After having graduated in all disciplines, she specialized on wolvens but also helped all human and animals around the neighboring island of Lycanius.

For Simmons, she was a great help since she was a master of both medical fields and a wolven herself, being able to operate on wolvens who were heavily injured and she also had a good income outside the Sanctuary as not only a wolven doctor, but also a doctor and veterinarian for normal people who came to her for help when it came to humans or their pets.

The Wolven-Sanctuary and the other Sanctuaries stayed in close contact with one another, and Grif and Simmons also remained in close contact with the friends of the mishap family they had back in the Atlanta Sanctuary. This was how they learned that Carolina and York had become parents of first a boy called Dean and then of a girl called Tracey.

Donut found some mermen and mermaids to found a new colony at a blank spot on the human maps in the oceans. Andersmith, Sarge and the others staying at the Sanctuary were doing great.

Bitters and Matthews were proud foster parents of Shiroko, who had just started pre-elementary school together with other Abnormal kids from inside and outside the Sanctuary.

Kimball founded a school for not so 'privileged' people as she would say towards the 'Normals,' but in the end it was a school for Abnormal kids who would otherwise not be able to get an education due to their obvious Abnormalities.

During her work as a guide, Kai had met a young wolven from the mainland, soon after moving out as they became mates. Sure, Grif had some troubles coping with that at first as she was his only family left, but he came to accept the fact that Kai was happy and accepted the young male, Kylar, into the family as his brother-in-law, as did Simmons. It didn't take a year for them both to announce that Kai was pregnant and that the Grif lineage wouldn't completely end on this side.

Even days after that, Simmons smiled when he saw Grif walking around with a swollen chest, bragging about the pup soon being born like he would become a father himself.

When the time drew close, Kai and Kylar moved to the Sanctuary to have a place to have the baby in security. During this time, she let a friend of her take over the tour guide business. She was a wolven from the Sanctuary too and was pretty reliable when it came to leaving the business to her.

When the little boy was born, he looked exactly as Kai had back then, Grif told Simmons later, and Kai was as protective of the little one as Moana had been back then of her and surely of Grif too.

During the following night, they had been sitting on the little balcony attached to their sleeping room, Grif again telling Simmons something from his memories that he had of his mom.

Some of the things were new, some were already known by Simmons, but he didn't say a word since he felt that Grif needed that. The birth and all these things triggered the sadness of the loss of his mom within his heart. Grif had wished so badly for his mom to be around to see their kids becoming parents and building up their lives.

Simmons took his mate into his arms and said that she still would see it, from where she was watching over her pups.

After all of the trouble of the last years, they both sat together in their human forms at the beach on a moonless night.

They were sitting in amicable silence, just listening to the waves leaping on the shore and enjoying their presence.

This was, until Grif, who was looking up to the starry sky, suddenly asked, "Hey Simmons?"

"Yeah?" He was looking up to the stars too.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

They had already talked about that back in the Sanctuary, back at a time when Simmons had trouble finding his place in the mishap group he called his friends and in the place he called home back then.

But this time, he had an answer.

"No," he replied, a smile appearing on his lips, "Not anymore."

Because he knew why he was here and he was happy that everything turned out the way it had.

Kiran inside him grumbled contentedly and Simmons knew that his wolven side felt the same.

Grif beside him was silent for a moment, but then he chuckled lowly, "Right. I guess, I could say the same here."

Rokash was also happy with their current situation, as Grif was.

Together, they again looked up to the starry sky while enjoying their amicable silence and listened to the waves leaping on the shore.

\- The End -


End file.
